We thank you, Lord, for the abundance of our harvest
It’s hard to express the constancy and intensity of God’s love
By Steve Hall
A movie scene comes to mind, one from about sixty years ago. A farmer sat at a bountiful table with his large family. He began with a prayer that went something like this. “We thank you Lord for the abundance of our harvest. We plowed the fields. We sowed the seed. We watered the plants. We pulled the weeds. We collected the produce. But we thank you anyway.”
Tuesday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
Daniel 2:31-45
Luke 21:5-11
This is the week when our country celebrates Thanksgiving. Historians generally agree that the holiday began with the early European settlers in America giving thanks for a successful Atlantic crossing, a sufficient harvest, or some similar blessing.
A movie scene comes to mind, one from about sixty years ago. A farmer sat at a bountiful table with his large family. He began with a prayer that went something like this. “We thank you, Lord, for the abundance of our harvest. We plowed the fields. We sowed the seed. We watered the plants. We pulled the weeds. We collected the produce. But we thank you anyway.”
The scene suggests a question: Why bother?
Why, indeed?
Keeping in mind the spirit, the distinction between God and man is a challenge. Our common discussion of God generally reverts to what we know and what we can imagine. But what we can imagine also reverts to what we know. We say God is a Trinity of Persons, yet ‘person’ is an experiential term. So too with every other description of the divine. St John comes the closest when he says, “God is love.” Not that God is a person or being that loves, but rather God is love.
God is the love who loved that farmer into existence. God is the love whose love gave the farmer the wisdom to plow, the strength to water, the vision to weed. God is the love that guided the gathering of the produce. And then, to take a step back, God is the love that made the earth and the water, the seed with life, and the weather for growing.
There is a holiday song tied to the movie version of The Polar Express. In the song, we hear the line: “You have everything you need if you just believe.” I beg to differ. Believing is not enough. We also need a thankful heart. Listen to the Psalm of David. “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his mercy endures for ever!” (Psalms 107:1) Other translations would read “His loving kindness” or “His loving devotion endure forever.” It’s hard to express the constancy and intensity of God’s love. We struggle with the limits of words, so God sent his own Word to help us grasp what is beyond understanding.
Yet, it would seem that gratitude is the first to be forgotten in the busyness of life. There is so much to do. Why bother with giving thanks? Besides, our ‘thanks’ is inadequate anyway.
But we do have a way, a fully adequate way. ‘Eucharist’ means ‘Thanks.’