By Fr. Kenneth Borowiak
Pastor, St. Joseph Parish in Friend
I love this time of year. The changing of seasons, the smell of harvest, crisp days and cool nights, football, all point to a time of realizing God’s benefits and reaping His rewards.
QwikSix is a combination grocery store, gas station and the local hangout in Friend, for residents and visitors.
From the first thing in the morning and throughout the day, long-time residents mingle with travelers coming through on Highway Six and talk about issues of the day, matters of local interest and solve some of the world’s problems.
Last week, while I was hosting some visitors from Oregon at QwikSix, several farmers asked me if I wanted to go for a ride in a combine while they were picking corn. They did not have to ask me twice. Harvest is one of the things that I truly enjoy most this time of year.
Anyone who is from Nebraska and grew up on the farm knows what I mean by this. After a year’s worth of field preparation, keeping track of the weather, watching the markets, irrigating and measuring everything that goes into a crop, fall is the time to realize the efforts of one’s labor. In Mark’s Gospel, chapter 4, verse 26ff., Jesus says: “This is how it is with the kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how. Of its own accord the land yields fruit, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. When the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once, for the harvest has come.”
With the development of doctrine and the greater understanding of Scripture, Christians better understand what is meant by the Kingdom of God, and farmers and ranchers today realize the success and advancement that technology and experience have brought to agriculture.
Nonetheless, the basic premise of the Scripture passage is valid for all time. It is the Lord Jesus Christ who is the giver of all good gifts. He is the one who gives mankind the intellect and resources to do research, to continue development of crops, the continuing perfection in machinery and farming practices, seed development and the ongoing refinement of herbicides and insecticides that all make increased production possible. The technology which drives farming and ranching today would have been unimaginable to our parents and grandparents.
It is true that farmers feed the world and that the United States of America leads the way. With the increased production of grains and livestock there is no reason why any human person on the face of the earth should ever go hungry.
While I spent the afternoon riding in the combine with a farmer from Friend picking corn, we talked about many of the issues facing the American ag producer today: markets, weather, geopolitical issues, wars, delivery issues, etc.
In the end, we both agreed that the success of any farmer or rancher’s efforts would not be possible without the initiative, the involvement in and the direction of our Heavenly Father, His Son and the Spirit. Even with man’s efforts, it is all due to the Lord and His generosity.
I find times like this to also be great opportunities for evangelization. Whether we are priests in the city or in the rural areas, meeting our parishioners where they are allows us to stay in touch with those things we need to connect with our people and to bring them the Word of God. We need to meet our people where they are and know what is involved in their lives and how they make a living and raise their families. If we understand this, it will help us be better preachers and teachers. In my more than 38 years of being a priest, I have found a pulpit to be over the back of a pickup, in the field or in a tavern.
The Gospel reading for a recent Sunday’s Mass was the story of the 10 lepers and how only one returned to give thanks for being healed. It is a great reminder to us that in all things we must give thanks.
The Prayer after Communion for the votive Mass for After the Harvest reminds us of the need to give thanks:
Grant, we pray O Lord
that as we give You thanks in this saving ministry
for the crops harvested from the earth
we may, through the same mystery working within us
be worthy to receive still greater blessing. Through Christ our Lord.
