For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace. — Ecclesiastes 3 (RSV)
Our Heavenly Father has deigned it good for his children to experience the world through the lens of seasons. However, the earthly reality of seasonal change parallels a higher spiritual reality. Every person experiences a season of the soul in some way or another. “A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance.” These images and the rest present in the third chapter of Ecclesiastes are genuine realities in every earthly life. There is a time for a winter of the soul, a time of mourning and a time of silence. There is also a springtime of the soul; a time to laugh and a time to dance.
I find summer to be an interesting season of the year. Liturgically speaking, our spiritual winter of Advent and Lent finds itself reborn in the sumptuous springtime of Paschaltide. Yet the great gift of Paschaltide concludes with Pentecost, which is a terribly underrated feast in the Church. Pentecost, the time at which the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles that they might give witness to the glory of God, sets the tone for the next season, namely, summer.
Liturgically, summer is within a period commonly referred to as Ordinary Time. Although there seems to be no distinct atmosphere or disposition toward this time in the Church, given its name, I like to think quite the contrary. If Fall and Winter, which contain the penitential seasons of the year (Advent and Lent), is a time of recollection, introspection, and penance for our wrongdoing, and Springtime contains our seasons of joy and celebration (Easter, the Ascension, and Pentecost), then summer is our time of battle. The Apostles were given the inestimable gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost precisely for the battle that loomed ahead of them.
Summer brings with it a certain paradox. Everything around one is alive with activity, from the smallest insect to the temperamental nature of the heavens. You and I too are kept bustling with various laundry lists of to-do items filling our every day -whether that be typing away at a desk in an office cubical or rushing off to the lake for a quick weekend escape to the sanity of nature. Simultaneously, however, there is also a certain sluggishness that captures us, what with the sweltering heat of the noonday sun and the weight of, not only humidity, but of the sheer number of tasks we would like to tackle in the short time we have.
This is the battle. This is what our Lord prepared us for by giving us the Holy Spirit, to be able to do battle with the snares of the Evil One. A time for war, a time to speak, a time to plant, and a time to seek. Summer is our season of embracing our role as the workers in the Father’s vineyard. It is now that we plant the seeds of faith in those around us, it is now that we proclaim the good news of Christ’s resurrection, and it is now that we defend the vineyard of our souls against the attacks of the evil one, namely from a sluggishness of faith brought on by the distraction of busywork so present in this season of activity.
Our relationship with the Lord is forged within the silence of winter, our Identity as adopted children of the Father by the Ultimate Sacrifice of Jesus is fulfilled through the Springtime of the Resurrection, and our Mission to proclaim the Gospel of Christ, both to the world, but also within our own hearts, is found in the weeks of summer.
To be sure, this is not dogma, but merely humble musings by a fellow Christian seeking to welcome into his heart the Love of Christ. If this small treatise on finding Christ within every season of our lives proves to be fruitful for even one soul, then it is an endeavor well carried out. Pax vobis!