The Farmer: Honorable, Noble and Partner with God

 

Recently, I ran across a very old 12th century liturgy referencing a Spanish farmer and his wife - St. Isidore and S. Maria de la Cabeza.

Below is a portion, a Reflection, on the person and calling of a farmer.  It is wonderful in its scope, depth and beauty.  I immediately thought of my many neighbors in Whatcom County who are farmers.  I specially thought of my Punjabi friends and neighbors who are farmers who are berry growers.  

I pray that this year is good to all these honorable farmers - whatever culture they come from.  I pray the harvest be bountiful.  May all the risks and labors of our farmer community be worth the joy they will receive at summer's end!

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The farmer's is a sacred calling because he is a collaborator with God in the work of His creation. In partnership with God he becomes to men a provider of the food, fiber, and shelter they need. Let the farmer, then, no longer belittle himself in his own eyes. The farmer's calling is among the noblest in all the world. The Lord considered it so, and the farmer must think of it in the same terms. With God he lives and works in the vast realms of His bountiful and beautiful nature. He is not one of the millions who in thick formations swarm through factory gates. He is a free man as he strides through his fields guiding a plow, sowing the seed, or harvesting the crop. The farmer's calling is one that must command great respect. Much knowledge and skill are required to manage well the farmstead with its land and fences, barns and granaries, tools, and machinery. Farming is among the greatest of human arts. The farmer must be an artisan and a craftsman, a capitalist, financier, manager, worker; a producer and a seller. He must know soil and seed, poultry and cattle; he must know when to till the soil, cultivate his fields, and harvest his crops. In the presence of his Lord the farmer should recall all this, not in a spirit of vainglory or pride, but in grateful appreciation of the calling that God gave him as a tiller of the soil. Praise and thanksgiving should rise in his heart as he reflects on the high regard the Lord has showered upon him and his work.

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I say: AMEN to that!