by Joan Mitchell, CSJ
Living things flourish in the solstice sun of northern hemisphere summer. Blooming flax and canola quilt the Canadian prairie in blue and yellow patchwork. Interstate highways bloom with white daisies. Knee-high corn runs up, down, and around rolling Iowa hills and across Illinois prairie.
Wild roses grow pink and sweet-smelling along rural roadsides. Apples and other fruit swell hidden in leafy trees, tomatoes on their vines, cabbage within their leaves. Wheat and oats have already turned golden in southern and southwestern fields. Summer is the season of lushness, the prime of the earth when all that will feed us grows.
Families bike, hike, and swim. People of all ages loosen and strengthen their joints with walks or jogs in the sun or strolls in the evening. Depression lifts with more exercise and sunlight.
The summer Sundays in Ordinary Time have a post-resurrection perspective. They are the Sundays in Growing Time. The Church has celebrated Jesus’ death, resurrection, and sending of the Spirit. In Jesus’ physical absence but risen presence, how shall Spirit-filled Christians live into the future?
The Sunday gospels of summer and fall nourish the growing, blooming, and ripening of Christian life. The gospel urges us to shout out our faith to others and to recognize God will treat us the way we treat others. The way we live our Christian lives is the most fundamental way we hand on our faith.
- What ways to reach out to others does summer open for you, especially to those most affected in the pandemic?