Helping hands at harvest time

The Roman Catholic Lectionary for Canada offers texts which are used in the liturgy today to commemorate Thanksgiving Day for Canada. Thanksgiving at harvest time is an ancient observance. Thanksgiving in the United States is in late November. Perhaps November is a difficulty month to encourage thanksgiving in Canada. The texts speak of the qualities of love which surround the act of thanksgiving. The Letter to the Colossians exhorts people to live with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. The family gathering for a holiday is often the place to practice these qualities. The Body of Christ, which is Jesus Present, celebrates Eucharist or “thanksgiving” in liturgy. The wisdom of the Vatican II Council expresses the transformation of the Body of Christ in the Eucharist as becoming what we are. This realignment of our awareness in Eucharist is our “knock” on the door with which we are opened as children of God to hear and live the Word in life. We pause in awe and deep gratitude for the relationship we have with Jesus and the experience of love we know in the Body of Christ in the flesh of family and friends who have been Eucharist to us. The Golden Rule lived by members of the Body of Christ is the Way to bring the desire of people, expressed in the prayer of the psalmist today, for love, peace and justice to fruition. ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few” (Matthew 9:37). We do pray that the Lord receives more labourers for the harvest as the warmth of Thanksgiving attracts more members of the Body of Christ to active, loving, humble service of people.