Changing Seasons and Grounding Experiences
-
October 6, 2022Ah, it’s a cool 64 degrees outside and there’s just enough nip in the air that you can feel it. Even here in the tropical Southeastern Gulf Coast where we enjoy milder weather without the colorful autumn foliage our friends in the north do, you can still feel the season changing.
Our Church has a beautiful way of weaving the liturgical life of the Church with the natural seasons we experience. Advent and a new Church year is just around the corner which coincides with autumn and winter. Advent and Christmas, like perennials that pup-up in your garden every spring, pop into the fall and winter with new opportunities. But first, we celebrate and observe All Saints and the Faithful Departed.
Our families too, experience different seasons. Young couples preparing for marriage and newlyweds are certainly in the springtime of their relationships. Couples 10 to 20 years in can be said to be in the beauty and heat of summertime of their union. Couples more than 20 to 40 years are in the autumn of married life, and those couples who’ve managed to form a life-long union of 40+ years are in the wintertime of their marriage.
All along the way, married couples and their families have many opportunities to fill their days with experiences that connect them to each other, and ground them to Jesus and the Way. The need for these grounding experiences can’t be understated. They remind us of what is good, true, and beautiful, reminders which have never been more important than they are today. During the celebration and observances of All Saints Day and of the Faithful Departed, we can also connect with family members who have completed their Earthly journey and are in Heaven.
Unless you have spent the last 25 years in a hermitage, it is obvious that our culture itself has moved into a difficult season. The best way I can describe it is this… we are experiencing all at once, two parallel universes that are in conflict. On one side of the divide are people and institutions that believe in God or a higher power who order their lives for the most part on age-old, tried and true ideas, like the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule. These folks in general work hard, take care of their families and their neighbors. On the other side of the divide are people and institutions that have deified government and the State, who look to it as they would to a god to provide laws to live by and provide basic needs. These folks order their lives based on ever changing nebulous notions and revisionist ideas about the most basic things, like life, gender, race and oh yeah, the weather. There is little dialogue between the two parallel universes which is creating a tinder box. In short, we have quite a mess up in here.
In the midst of the tumult, as Catholics and Christians we can find meaning and order in the changing seasons, both the natural ones and the ones in the Church. Seasons help us to mark time, and they help us to be more grounded, more human and more real. Rites, rituals, and devotions in the Church go beyond that and help us also to become more holy, as married couples and as families. Let’s embrace the coming season! All Saints, and the Commemoration of the Faithful Departed! Advent and Christmas will also be here before you know it. Get ready to experience these beautiful seasons to the fullest!
