Good morning. Spring, what a fabulous time of year. The life of spring follows the hush of winter as Easter follows the hush of the tomb. It is this annual reminder of His light coming into the world and the cycles of life and decay which draws me to the quiet solitude of gardening every spring. The mystery of life needing to die in order to live again is clearly witnessed time and time again in the act of gardening. A dry lifeless seed put into the soil springs to life. How fitting it is that Mary of Magdala mistook Jesus to be the Gardener.
We are reminded in today’s Gospel that our Creator sent the Son into this world so that through His death and Resurrection we might have life. His death was necessary in order for us to have life. We likewise are called to follow His example; we must die to our self in order to truly know life. It is in this annual return of life where we are reminded of God’s love for us, that life follows the hush of the tomb. As a gardener I am reminded in the sprouting of each seed that I plant of God’s gift of salvation and His promise of eternal life, for “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son.” It is in this annual celebration of these Paschal mysteries, and the annual rites of spring gardening that we are reminded that we are more than all of creation because of His gift of self, the gift of self we are all called to. This giving of self is witnessed in the events of Easter and in the union of a man and woman in the Sacrament of Matrimony.
Our late pontiff, Blessed Pope John II writes of this self-giving, surrender of self in his book Love and Responsibility 
In the act of marriage we witness the love God shared with us in His giving of Himself for us, for in marriage one surrenders their own life for that of their other. It is in this dying to one’s own self in marriage that we come to know life beyond that of ourselves, in the total surrender of ourselves to our other in marriage we come to know and appreciate that we are intended for something more than all of creation. We find an example of this marital gift of self in the life of Saint Agia whose life we celebrate today. Pope Benedict reminds us in his encyclical Deus Caritas Est that “God’s way of loving becomes the measure of human loving” and that marriage provides for us an iconic view of God’s relationship with us. He reminds us that “Love grows through love. Love is “divine” because it comes from God and unites us to God; through this unifying process it makes us a “we” which transcends our divisions and makes us one, until in the end God is “all in all” (1 Cor 15:28).” So, let us go to the shed, retrieve our gardening tools, and let love grow. Make a great day!
In the act of marriage we witness the love God shared with us in His giving of Himself for us, for in marriage one surrenders their own life for that of their other. It is in this dying to one’s own self in marriage that we come to know life beyond that of ourselves, in the total surrender of ourselves to our other in marriage we come to know and appreciate that we are intended for something more than all of creation. We find an example of this marital gift of self in the life of Saint Agia whose life we celebrate today. Pope Benedict reminds us in his encyclical Deus Caritas Est that “God’s way of loving becomes the measure of human loving” and that marriage provides for us an iconic view of God’s relationship with us. He reminds us that “Love grows through love. Love is “divine” because it comes from God and unites us to God; through this unifying process it makes us a “we” which transcends our divisions and makes us one, until in the end God is “all in all” (1 Cor 15:28).” So, let us go to the shed, retrieve our gardening tools, and let love grow. Make a great day!
Today we recall the good life, gifts, and work of Saint Agia.
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