THERE IS a special joy in harvest time. We gaze in wonder and in gratitude on the myriad crops and fruits and flowers. We are astounded, as were all who went before us. Here is God's plenty. As the summer warmth grows less and the dusk comes sooner over land and sea, a melancholy grips the heart.
This lovely harvest time so soon must pass and join the vanished years. As we sing our happy harvest songs of praise, we feel the advent of a chill about us. We realise that the shadows lengthen and the evening falls, while remembered summers shine across the grass as the heart remembers morning. Even amid the golden fields of August,
. . . Our sincerest laughter
With some pain is fraught.
We realise we have not here a lasting city. We seek one that is to come.
On two autumnal feast days, we get a glimpse of the final garnering and we are given new hope and inspiration and light in our darkness. The celebration of Christ's Transfiguration on the holy mountain speaks to us of our destiny. He has gone to prepare a place for us that where He is, we also may be.
in Scripture, prayer, and in Eucharist we unite with Peter and say Lord, it is good for us to be here." To us also comes the Father's saving voice: "This is my dear Son, with whom I am well pleased . . . listen to Him." Years later, Peter was to recall that most wondrous event as he urged all to pay attention to the Truth which is like a lamp shining in a dark place, until the Day dawns and the light of the "Morning Star shines in our hearts..."
That experience on the mountain was a foretaste of Easter joy. And the victory of Christ is recalled for us in the venerable feast of the Dormition of His Mother, known in the Western Church as Assumption Day. She was the first and most faithful of all the Redeemed Christians from the fifth century kept a hope filled feast to honour her coming home to join her Son.
This was a special grace for singular fidelity. By the river Jordan, the celebration was held as early as 550 AD. St John Damascene (contemporary of Venerable Bede) said that it is because she is the Mother of her Son that we celebrate the joyful day of Prayer and of harvest hope that speaks to us of personal resurrection and of eternal life. Christian people, East and West, take new heart as they join in the Magnificat of Vespers and glimpse once more, through all clouds of darkness and of pain, the vision of our final destiny. Christ's mother speaks still the Scripture message of Cana in Galilee: " Whatever he says to you . . . do it!"
In Harvest time, as always, she leads us to her Son. May He in mercy gather us to Himself at Journey's end.
Transfigured Christ, believed and loved,
In you our only Hope has been,
Grant us, in your unfailing love,
Those things no eye has ever seen.