Autumn is harvest season as it is indicated by the word “harvest” itself.  For this term came from an
Old English word brought by the Angles to Britain that is connected to the German “Herbst” which means
“autumn”.  Harvesting has always been, especially in the past when the grain had to be cut with a scythe, a
very labour-intensive activity. But once the crops are collected and the harvest is brought in, the harvest festivities can begin.  It then turns into a season of joy and happiness.  This is reflected in Isaiah for example where the joy in God’s kingdom is compared to the joy of harvest, “You have multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest.” (Isaiah 8:3)
And the psalmist proclaims emphatically, “Those who go out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, carrying their sheaves.”
(Psalm 126:6)

But there is another side to harvesting. Reaping means “killing”. For example, when we decorate our houses with cut flowers, then in order to enjoy their beauty, we bring an end to the lives of these plants.  When the corn is reaped, then it is cut off from its root so that it no longer can grow.  The harvester with the scythe who can be seen on the picture is also the model for the Grim Reaper as a symbol of death.  The scythe we use to reap will be once used to reap us. That could sound gruesome, of course, but it is not if we can see the larger context.

At harvest we witness the basic law of life, that life is only possible if life dies.  An organism lives through another organism that gives its life.  And so everything in this creation is part of this cycle of taking and giving, reaping
and sowing, consuming and being consumed.  We live in order to give our lives. But we can only truly understand this mystery of nature if we look at Jesus on the cross.  There we see into the heart of creation.  For everything was created through Jesus, and his touch is on everything.   In Jesus we see that the purpose of life is not to live but to give the own life.  That is the law of love.

This becomes nowhere more clearly visible than in Holy Communion.  There we celebrate that Jesus becomes bread and wine so that we can “eat” him or “take him in”.  He feeds us with his life.  An old symbol for this is the pelican that was believed to feed its young with the own blood.  Jesus gives us an example in order that we should become “bread” and “wine” to feed others.  Holy Communion is not something that we celebrate only on special Sundays, it is the ultimate rhythm of life that everything communions with everything.  Jesus was harvested that we may become the harvest for others.  Because of the basic connection of everything with Jesus we should encounter the nature around us with awe and reverence.  Nature is not given to us for detached exploitation but for devoted exploration.  We cannot live without nature, but nature could live, in fact, much better without us.

I was very impressed by an exhibition about the Inuit living in the Arctic.  I learned about their fundamentally different approach to hunting and harvesting.  According to their belief, human and animals are equal in that all life shares a common kind of soul or “life essence” (inua).  The hunting practice is therefore based upon respect and reciprocity.  The hunter will only succeed if the animal chooses to give its life as a gift in return for moral and respectful behaviour on the part of the whole community.
The problem is not that we have to kill other organisms in order to harvest them. But so often we lack the respect that we should have.  For we should never forget that the scythe we wield will be used one day to harvest us.
Johannes Wildner