Harvest Festivals

Since pagan times harvest festivals have been annual celebrations for successful harvests. They featured ample food and freedom from the necessity to work in the fields. The common features were eating, merriment, contests, music and romance. Christians adopted these festivals to give thanks to God our creator for God’s goodness in the harvest. Today we give thanks for the harvest we have grown in our gardens, if we have one, and the harvest we are able to buy each day in the shops. We are reminded again of God’s generosity and we join with all God’s people in continuing to give thanks for God’s provision. We are invited to pray “give us today our daily bread” and to know that for most of us that daily bread is far more than enough.

Harvest festivals also provide a time reflect on our ongoing desire for more. It is an occasion for us to confess that we too often are not satisfied and many in the West in particular are driven to have more. This has resulted in a significant percentage of humanity not having enough, living in constant hunger, debilitating poverty, all so that our avarice in the West might be met. Our greed has done lasting damage to many communities, and to our planet.  Today provides a chance to take stock and work for another way.

Our harvest festival comes during Matariki.  Part of the importance of Matariki for Maori was that it signified that it was time to prepare the land for the kumara planting. It is a time of caring for the earth. We are reminded of our need to care for this planet so that it may continue to provide the food we need to survive. It is God’s gift and needs our care and protection. When we mistreat the earth we mock God and put our survival at risk.

Harvest festivals also provide a chance to join with Creation’s song of praise to God our creator. Some of the great saints, including Francis, saw God’s goodness and love being declared through all creation, and sought to join in that declaration.

In our gospel reading we continue to reflect on the two questions that lie at the heart of Mark’s gospel: “With what shall we compare the kingdom of God?” and “who is this man?” Today Jesus breaks the power of rules and practices that isolated and impoverished the sick woman, healing her and restoring her to the community. He meets the crowds’ disbelief and mocking, and restores the girl who was dead to life, and to her parents. In both acts Jesus reminds us that the Kingdom is built of God’s generosity and mercy, and not on rules that separate and belittle. He invites those present to see the world and each other through new eyes. He invites us to also see the world through new eyes and to join in this kingdom of generosity to all.