Sunday afternoon has always held a special place in my heart. It is a time of rest and reading, a time for family and a time to enjoy the things in life we tend to neglect throughout the hustle and bustle of the work week. And now late into my Orthodox years it is also a time for my PLN.
I fondly recall sitting on the front porch with my Grandparents on Sunday watching the day coming to a close. I would listen to the many stories about Big Dan the workhorse or the cattle drives bringing the young heifers home for the winter from the mountain land above the Skyline Drive, and so many colorful images and stories of a time now passed.
One Sunday in particular we were admiring the beautiful golden wave of oats that were planted across from the farmhouse gently swaying back and forth with the summer breeze. It was a thing of beauty and quite an accomplishment for Granddad! With the exception of the 5 Canadian thistles that towered over the heads of the grain with their green and pink graffiti of color. Monday morning after the early morning milking, Granddad had finished his breakfast and headed out the door early. As I watched, he gathered an old feed sack and headed into that golden field of oats. As he weaved his way trying not to trample down the stalks of grain, he made his way to the Northern invading thistles and carefully dug them up and placed them ever so carefully in the feed sack, so that their seeds would not fall on the fertile ground.
As a farmer Granddad had fought crop productivity with the weed family all of his life. Weeds simply rob the soil of its nutrients and they should not find their way into the livestock feed if possible. Some of the livestock will not eat if some of these weeds are present in their food, or if they do consume them it can cause some digestion irritations. Did you know it takes about 2 acres of good land per cow to nourish them? 2 acres is roughly one and a half football fields and the farmer has to be on top their game to control those corruptive weeds! I struggle just trying to keep weeds out of Matushka’s small flower beds!
Weeds are most unwanted, and so it is in my spiritual life as well! St. Antiochus clearly states: “For the seed of corruption is in me” (Prayer II – Prayers Before Sleep – Jordanville Prayer Book) And the prophet Isaiah warns us: “Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.” (Isa 1:4)
So it seems in this backward time, weeds easily take root and flourish! To the church in Galatia the Apostle Paul writes: “For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.” (Gal 6:8) Saint Chrysostom helps us understand about these weeds this way: “‘For the one who soweth to his own flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption’ (o{ti oJ speivrwn eij~ savrka eJautou`, ejk th`~ sarko;~ qerivsei fqoravn); ‘but the one who soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting’ (oJ de; speivrwn eij~ to; Pneu`ma, ejk tou` Pneuvmato~ qerivsei zwh;n aijwvnion). For even as in regard to seeds, one who sows bitter vetch cannot reap corn, for what is sown and what is reaped must both be of the same kind, so it is in actions. The one who plants in the flesh wantonness (immorality), drunkenness, inordinate (excessive) desire, shall reap the fruits of these things. And what are these? Punishment, vengeance, shame, derision (scorn), corruption....But the fruits of the Spirit,...consider now: Hast thou sown almsgiving? The treasures of the heavens and eternal glory await thee. Hast thou sown temperance? Honor and reward, and the triumphant shouts of praise by the angels and a crown from the Prize-bestower.” [Ch. VI, P.G. 61:725, 726 (cols. 676, 677).]
The good seed we should be planting and nourishing are the fruit of the Spirit, “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” (Gal 5:22-23)And in that sowing of good seed we should follow the directions given by St. Peter: “ Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever”. (! Pet 1:22-23) And with the tilling of St. Kyril: “therefore, that the divine seed may blossom well in us, let us first cast out of the mind worldly cares, and the unprofitable anxiety which makes us seek to be rich.” [Saint Kyril: Ib., 180.]
