Farming, in its relationship to the spiritual life, is an invitation to trust in God in a way that many today do not experience.
This opportunity exists in a great tension between self-reliance and trust in God. Scripture itself speaks to this.
There is the need to work or there will be no fruits from the earth.
“In seedtime sluggards do not plow; when they look for the harvest, it is not there.” (Proverbs 20:4) “In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread.” (Genesis 3:17-19)
At the same time, farming is radically dependent on God.
“It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.” (Psalms 127:2) “For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” (Psalms 5:45)
Additionally, we can see tension in the story of Joseph and Pharoah and the need to plan for material concerns (Genesis 41), and in the parable of Our Lord concerning the landowner who built larger barns for his large crop (Luke 12:16-21).
These tensions exist for all of us, but it might be that the farmer and other agrarian lines of work are suited to seeing them more clearly. God calls us simultaneously to actively cooperate in the unfolding of His magnificent creation as well as to the total self-surrender to His providence.
There is a reason Our Lord makes frequent use of farming and shepherding in his parables. These communicate the realities that He intends to share in a way that is easily understood by most. The farmer is offered a privileged understanding of these parables because he not only understands them but also lives them.
Planting season and harvest are times of great stress and long, hard hours, but the faithful hope and believe that whether it is an abundant or a lean year, God will see them through.
“Consider the ravens, for they sow not, neither do they reap, neither have they storehouse nor barn, and God feedeth them. How much are you more valuable than they?” (Luke 12:24)
Father Cyrus Haddad is the pastor of Washington Court House St. Colman of Cloyne Church.