Aung San Suu Kyi is a global figure who needs no introduction but deserves accolades beyond all that have been written or given out. I have the honor of being familiar with Daw Suu for quite a while thanks to my Burmese Brothers and the flow of information in the free world. Yet my respect and admiration for her has even increased when I had the opportunity to watch “The Lady†and got to know why that film was made in honor of the great love alongside the personal sacrifice she has. It is her consistently living in such a way of life over the past twenty years plus that recalls to my mind the words of Jesus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit†(John 12:24). Indeed, Daw Suu has been called to live the life of the seed that Jesus said more than two thousand years ago.
 The “seed†of Daw Suu in her first forty three years can be said as beautiful as a dream that a great many women on earth can only dream: highly educated, happy family, and an easy life in an affluent country. This lasted until August 1988 when she felt a duty to get involved in the suffering of her fellow people. Everything began to turn upside down to herself and her loved ones. The “seed†has fallen down to earth and died out its own property on the outside since. The paradox that Jesus pronounced is reconfirmed. Just as that Jesus had poured out his blood has awakened human conscience (Cf. Heb 9:14) and born fruit of “greater love†to “the end of the earth,†that Daw Suu has been nonviolently challenging the military authorities to respond to the democratic aspirations of the Burmese people has drawn the atrocious junta’s careful attention and spread the alternative power of compassion and insight.
 
The real quality of a seed is its ability to live for a cause greater than itself – to develop its potential and grow up into a new life that multiplies its own quality. In order to realize itself the seed, however, has to fall into the ground, to be able to sympathize with the earth and to take root in it. Seeing it this way, the seed of each human being includes their potential to dedicate to a cause higher than themselves, to believe in such ideal, to hope for it, and to love it courageously. This could hopefully come true when they leave their ivory tower of security and comfort, stop being indifferent to what is happening around them, and show compassion for the grass roots. Just as how a tree and its fruits are greater than a seed, the greater human stature is seen by their personality rather than by their physical height. Whether or not a person explicitly professes that he or she is called to live out his or her uniquely human quality, indeed all is called. The challenge is whether they dare go out of themselves.
 Saint Dominic once replying to Jordan of Saxony said: “Seed when scattered fructifies, when hoarded rots.†Whether or not we publicly claim that we are seeds that come from God, it is the same. We have to be real. We have to be scattered so as to bear fruits. Vocation of a seed is not something we can put on and take off. We are all given the ability to discern our true cause in life, to hope for it, to love it, and to grow it to its full stature. Underlying it all is a sense of our personal relationship with God, the One who created the seed, and the challenge to live out that relationship so as to bear the same fruits that we come from.
 Lord, give me faith to latch on you and grant me your courage to fall down into the earth so that I will grow up and be harvested for you. Amen.
 Peter Thoại O.P.