Fr. Richard OMOLADE

Every farmer hopes for a bountiful harvest and when the land has been blessed by God and the fields have produced abundantly, it is with gladness and appreciation that farmers bring in the harvest. There is a lot to learn from harvest thanksgiving celebrations. Every harvest celebration is hope realized and thus an opportunity to give thanks to the one who has made it possible.

There are other lessons, sharing of the blessings with others especially the under privileged. Now that many Churches are about to celebrate their harvest thanksgiving, it is important to keep certain teachings in mind.

Harvest thanksgiving celebration can indeed be a deeply spiritual and religious celebration.  It should be observed as an opportunity to give praise and honour to God, the maker who has blessed us with the fruit of the earth and given people abundant harvest. More and more today, harvest thanksgiving celebration can look like social event or a competition. While human beings are social in nature, social class structure should be eliminated from our Harvest thanksgiving. Yes, the rich contribute significantly, but so do the poor who contribute from the little they have. While we appreciate the giving by the rich, we should also celebrate the giving by the poor.  While we make plans to feed the rich that will donate, let us remember that the poor donate also significantly even if it is small, we must therefore make conscious effort to not make them feel insignificant. I feel every harvest organizer must set aside some items from the harvest to give to the poor. Sometimes some rich people remember and buy stuffs to be shared, but it is not always the case.

Harvest thanksgiving celebrations are nowadays occasions to raise funds for the mission of the Church. Good funding is crucial to the success of the mission, but ultimately the success belongs to God and He alone gives success to the work of our hands. While we need funds to carry out various apostolate of the Church, we must caution ourselves so that we do not think any money at all costs is permissible even when it is available. This desire often leads us to invite some undesirables to our harvest celebration and once we collect their money we mortgage our voice and are no longer able to speak the truth of Christ. We need to catechize our people to learn to give generously and cheerfully.  We don’t need to manipulate anyone to give God or to His mission.

We must also watch it, so that we celebrate harvest and its attendant parts and not just carry on business activities in the name of raising funds. It is not uncommon for Harvest committees to get materials from vendors and sell them at a higher price. This often gives the picture of very good returns, yet the cost of the materials must be deducted to get the true picture of the event. It is such activities that then turn Harvest thanksgiving into Fund raising and therefore tainting its pure nature. Closely tied to this issue is that with lots of goods to be purchased, selling on credit becomes necessary. It has been observed that many times buyers do not always pay for all goods bought and organizers often have to spend more money running after people to collect some of these debts. This is not the spirit of harvest. If you cannot pay for it immediately, then don’t buy it because ASAP for one man may be in two years’ time and the Church project cannot wait for that time. “A bird in hand is always better than two on the tree.” Buying and owing is not only bad, but also sinful and many parishes have their stories of accumulated debts from Bazaar sales with same names featuring many times. Such practice must be curtailed, and the only way is to sell only good that are available instead of going all out to get more goods in the name of making profit. Offer your best to God, buy what you can easily pay for and be grateful for the blessing of the year. Then you will be able to look forward with confident hope that the one who is able will make the next one even better.

Ultimately, harvest thanksgiving is a celebration of joy, and the gathered assembly should do all in her power to share joy by organizing events that many people can participate in.  It is in this regard that even when it is General harvest, children should still be taken care of, and events planned for them to engage them and give them maximum enjoyment. When they participate in fun and good events, they are likely to remember the event long after and yearn for it even into their adult years. This is a good way of planting the seed of the future today and hoping to reap a harvest of joy and other bountiful fruits.