A Season Changes and the Giving of Thanks
Despite all of the attention given to New Years' Day, I think our sense of passing time is captured and expressed better in the change of the seasons. We never really experience a year. But the experience of a season evokes deep memories and associations. In some manner, the seasons echo times and patterns in our lives.
Autumn comes as both relief (less heat) and beauty, as leaves change in their annual prelude to winter. I think of autumn as a sign of maturity. The bright promise of Spring and the hard work of Summer have passed and nature moves towards its annual time of sleep and rest.
The Church has its seasons as well, though they look towards a calendar of reality that differs from the natural movements of the planet. Autumn quietly moves us towards the mid-November beginning of the Nativity Fast, though that somehow seems to have winter (Christmas) as its flavor.
The American feast of Thanksgiving, recognized and celebrated within the Church, is perhaps the best summary of Autumn. It remembers the goodness of the year, and offers it, like a rich harvest, in thanksgiving to God.
Make this autumn a season of Thanksgiving. Gather up the experiences of this past year and make them a thank-offering to God. We are taught to give God thanks always and for all things. It is the great harvest of life.
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