From Tears to Joy: The Harvest of Human Experience
A Faithful Journey to Flourishing
As I wake this morning after a sleep disturbed by election angst, the poet greets me with words familiar from the gospel song, 'Bringing in the Sheaves' (Psalm 126). "Let those who plant with tears reap the harvest with joyful shouts. Let those who go out, crying and carrying their seed, come home with joyful shouts, carrying bales of grain" (5-6, CEB).
I grow things, so I'm touched, especially by the image of a farmer sowing seeds with tears. How apt a description of human life!
Regardless of our vocation, living faithfully within the communion of sufferings created by neighbor love often leads us to "plant with tears."
My wife, a surgeon, faces heartbreaking death daily. Yesterday, during a case, a colleague shared news of local immigrant children and parents who were tortured and murdered recently. The grief was too much. She wept, her tears blurring her vision as she cut away the cancer that burdened her patient and those who loved her—in her way, planting seeds with tears.
Of course, the poet does not leave us with that poignant image.
In context, this is a pilgrimage song. Jews from Judah, Galilee, and beyond “went out” from their hamlets, joining thousands of others on the days-long trail up to the Temple at Jerusalem. They'd herd festively decorated lambs, bulls, and oxen and carry the first fruits of their harvest as their sacrifice of thanksgiving to God for the abundance they expected God to provide.
In Jerusalem, Temple priests poured the livestock's blood into the Temple's intricate duct and combustion system, transforming it into smoke and incense, symbolizing prayers ascending to the heavens. The priest returned the consecrated meat and grain to the family for its eucharistic feast. Having sought and found atonement and blessings, pilgrims returned "home with joyful shouts, carrying bales of grain" (5-6).
From seeds sowed with tears to joyful harvest, the pilgrim's song aptly describes the journey within which the faithful cling tenaciously to God as the source of all hope and fruitfulness. I sing that song with the poet this morning, expecting the seeds we sow with tears today to yield an abundant harvest of the love and joy that sustain us.