We can treat summer as the great getaway from the other seasons in a busy life. Summer is a time of vacations, traveling, BBQs, baseball games and parades. Yet, in the world of nature, summer is a season of growth like no other. Nature’s vacation is in the season of winter.
Spring may start the growing cycle, but summer is when the real growth takes place. Depending on weather and labor, the growth of summer determines the harvests of autumn.
Father Charles Lachowitzer
In the spiritual life, agricultural imagery is found throughout the sacred Scriptures. The land, the planting, the tilling, the weeding and the yield, are given their comparisons to the garden of the soul. Perhaps the most notable is Jesus’ parable “The Sower and the Seed.” (Mt 13:1ff).
The Scriptures also proclaim that Jesus Christ is God’s First Fruit until the end of time (1 Cor 15:20). We are to imitate Jesus, and therefore we offer our First Fruits to our parish, diocese and the missionary activity of the Church. Again, we hear in the Scriptures, particularly the Gospels, that to work in the vineyards as disciples is to bear much fruit in the Kingdom of God (Jn 15:8).
While summer may be a season of less work and more play, it is hardly a season to go on vacation from our spiritual lives. Our growth in the faith during the growing season is necessary for a bountiful fall harvest. Sure, there are weeds — like sin, suffering and death — that require our labor to make sure that they do not become the only thing growing in our gardens.
If we find ourselves canoeing across some pristine lake, we can take time to behold the awe of natural beauty and offer a prayer of gratitude to God before we swamp the canoe. We can offer prayers of gratitude for the treasured presence of gathered family and friends from near and far. When it is hot and humid and we find ourselves sitting in our air-conditioned homes with an ice-cold lemonade, we can pray a rosary or do some spiritual readings. We can make that extra effort in advance to actually find a Catholic Church for Sunday Mass while camping in some state or national park.
However, we take time to make time this summer for our spiritual lives, whatever we water and feed and however we rid the garden of weeds, we can count on the waters of our baptism and the grace of holy Communion to know a summer of growth.
If a farmer has no market or if the cost of production exceeds what price will be paid for the produce, what incentive is there to work diligently for a harvest? However, if the market is the mission of the Church and the reward will always be greater than the sacrifice, then we not only have growth in our gardens, but we will also have the harvest to offer in gratitude to God for all that we have been given.
In this summer time, let us by the grace of God and the workings of the Holy Spirit tend to the garden of the soul and experience the summer growth that will bear fruit in a bountiful harvest.
For truly, as proclaimed in the Letter of St. Paul to the Galatians (6:9), we will reap what we sow. But if good seeds are sown, we need a summer of growth to truly reap the First Fruits of our spiritual lives.
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