SEASON OF HOPE
The season of harvest brings joy. joy, because what was simply potential has reached matured fulfillment. a farmer plants his seeds in the dark humidity of the soil. the seed is small and appears alone in the soil, yet the farmer is not without hope in knowing that within the seed’s physical diminutive status is future gigantic tree, whose life span will be long and its fruits uncountable
While the farmer buries the seed into the ground, he does not leave it alone.he accompanies the span of the seed beneath the earth with hope. Hope gives the seed a future. hope sustains the growth of the seed. hope impels the seed to burst into fulfillment. Hope gives life to the seed.
Our journey of life, amidst the vicissitude of seasons that comes with it, is synonymous to the journey of the seed. like the seed, there may be times when it appears nothing will sprout, and in fact when we give up on waiting. Again, like the seed, there may be times when everything appears moribund and stagnant. they may be times when rigorous effort is met with little and stunted growth.
At such times, what do we do?
in imitation of the farmer, we must daily return to the seed’s resting place, not as one mournfully and languidly going to the graveside but as one bursting with the joyful hope of life and resurrection. Harvest season, therefore, can be fittingly linked to a celebration of the victory of hope in the journey of the human life. the farmer does not merely return to the ‘death bed’ of the seed, but rather to the ‘life place’ of the seed. the joyful hope of the seed’s victory is the farmer’s strength as he daily and laboriously cares for the seed.
written by: Rev. Fr. Theodore Martinos