“…if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit” (NRSV, Galatians 6:8)
In ancient times when a conqueror took possession of a country he signified it, not in modern fashion by running his flag up on the chief government building, but by receiving the gift of earth and water at the hands of its now subject king. The country itself might be vast in extent but it was all comprised in that token offering of earth and water contained in a golden dish and ewer.
So the harvest gifts which we bring to church are a token that all the produce from the farms and gardens and allotments of our parish, and indeed of the world, belong to God. Indeed they are God’s in a far truer sense than any conqueror’s lands because it is God who has created them. He has imparted life to the seed and furnished the sun and the rain for it to grow and mature.
So, far from any of the things which “we grow”, as we put it, being our own work, we do not even fully understand how they grow. That is why a Harvest Thanksgiving is a good corrective to a Horticultural Show – the major credit is given to whom it belongs.
And just as these gifts are a visible token and acknowledgement that everything which the earth brings forth belongs to God, so also our parish church is a token that the actual earth itself is his also. We cannot give all the harvest to him because we need most of it for our own use. And the same is true of the land. Therefore we set part of the land aside for him, God’s Acre with God’s House standing in it, as a sign that the whole “earth is the Lord’s and all that therein is” (Psalm 24:1).
So too with time. We set apart for him one day in every week, the Lord’s Day, as a token that all the week is his also. Thus by worshipping God each Sunday in his church, we acknowledge that we are his and should lift up our hearts to him, always and everywhere. We ought, indeed, to give thanks to him at all times and in all places; but such being the conditions of this mortal life, we have to start by doing so sometimes and in some places.
In the next life, however, towards which this life is steadily bringing us, those conditions will have ceased to exist, and the time for token offerings will be over. Here we can choose precisely to what extent we shall belong to God – it may be greater, it may be lesser – but there it has to be all or nothing.
For there the ultimate fact is that one’s true journey’s end is to see him and share his life, and to do that means that one’s own life must be obviously and willingly and totally given to him. And only by thus allowing God to possess oneself completely, will one also possess him, who is the source of all true joy and contentment; whereas those who prefer their own company to his and to his scorching sanctity, they will have their wish.
So the ultimate alternatives are either to give all and so gain all and be eternally happy, or to refuse all and so lose all and be eternally frustrated. “Thou hast made us for Thyself, O God”, wrote St Augustine, “and our hearts are restless till they rest in Thee”. (1) And that is true of everyone, as true of those to whom God means everything as it is of those to whom he means nothing.
Some people have already decided of their own free will that God is not for them. But for the rest, what begins here as an occasional token dedication of themselves to God must grow into a total dedication of themselves.
For what is true of a plant is also true of human beings as created by God. What is important is not how old they are, but how far they have grown towards spiritual maturity, and that is reached when a person is wholly devoted to God and has been transformed into the likeness of Christ.
There are some who look back over their youth and with vain regret see how God was kept well out of those years which can never be lived again. They echo the poignant lament of St Augustine, “Too late have I loved Thee, O Beauty so ancient, yet for ever new!” (2) For the devotion of young people and their joy in having found God when life is fresh and green is particularly acceptable to him and is one of the most attractive features in the life of the Church.
Others, on the other hand, who followed the words of Holy Scripture, “Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth” (Ecclesiastes 12:1) and who in their early years were enthusiastic in their love and loyalty to Our Blessed Lord and his Church, now reflect with equal regret on their latter years as they see how far they have slipped and drifted since those far off happy days.
If so, remember what Our Lord has taught us in the Parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard, many of whom were called at the eleventh hour (Matthew 20:1-16). It is never too late to return – though one day it will be. Now then is the time to begin, or begin again, the habit of prayer and of frequent and devout Communion, for without those two there can be no spiritual growth. Get into the way of recollecting God’s Presence with you wherever you may be. Turn to him from time to time in love and gratitude and adoration and receive him regularly and often with a penitent and faithful heart in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar.
Spiritual maturity is very rarely achieved in this life. But like plants that are raised under glass and then moved outside to grow to maturity, so those who have been growing in penitence and in love for God in this world will continue that growth hereafter, until at last they are ready to “see the King in his beauty” (Isaiah 33:17).
But only those who by their penitence and love have become capable of ripening to spiritual maturity and perfection, only they will have the opportunity to do so; and it is salutary to reflect that the season of growth which we are enjoying now, becomes ever shorter as each day closes.
References
1. St Augustine of Hippo (354-430) Confessions, Book I, Chapter I. (Words quoted above are slightly amended). Available from:
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf101.vi.I_1.I.html (Accessed 05 October 2011) (Internet).
2. St Augustine of Hippo (354-430) Confessions, Book I, Chapter I. (Words quoted above are slightly amended). Available from:
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/augustine/confess.xi.xxvii.html (Accessed 05 October 2011) (Internet).