God's Harvest

On May 15th each year we celebrate the feast of St. Isidore the farmer.  This is the time we bless the land.  Fields, orchards, and gardens are all blessed so there may be a bounty from which to feed many.  This is a major church season.  Our Christian roots are agricultural.  Jesus spoke of farmers sowing, shepherds gathering, lands yielding, trees bearing fruit—it was the visible world of his day. For most of us the world of produce is the supermarket.  But we still need the yield of mother earth to meet the hungers of our body and soul. 

The growing season in North America is ninety days; from May 15th to August 15th.  The conclusion of the growing season is the harvest of late summer.  The solemnity of the Assumption of Mary into heaven concludes the growing season.  Mary is Queen of the harvest.  The Octave of the Feast of the Assumption ends on the 22nd with the Feast of the Queenship of Mary.  From the planting of earth with Isidore in May to the harvest of souls, and the harvest of the land, on August 15th, the liturgical year constantly echoes the parables of the seasons of our soul.

No one can pray like a farmer prays.  No one hopes and waits like those who work the land. If it’s too dry seeds cannot be planted and crops that are planted wither.  If it’s too wet plants are washed away or cannot be harvested.  Farmers exist on the knife’s edge.  The prophet Isaiah speaks of the Spirit being like rain that comes watering the fields bringing forth life and returning from where it came. 

Whether we’ve ever worked the land or not, we are all planters and harvesters.  We are the seeds and yield.  We are the fruit, the gifts, and the Spirit.  We are more than a ninety day investment of the earth.  We are the bounty of God for all seasons.  As the hymn says, “Lord, send out your Spirit and renew the face of the earth.”