Fields of Plenty
“Let both of them grow together until the harvest”
Here is L'Angelus by Jean-François Millet (ca 1858). Millet depicts two peasants pausing from their backbreaking labor in the fields to pray at the tolling of the evening Angelus bell. "The idea for The Angelus came to me" says Millet, "because I remembered that my grandmother, hearing the church bell ringing while we were working in the fields, always made us stop work to say the Angelus prayer for the poor departed."
The man and woman bow their heads solemnly, the basket of potatoes between them signifying their hard-won harvest through God's providence. This image ties directly to the agricultural metaphors in the Matthew and Romans passages. The potato plants springing from the ground evoke the parable's wheat, while the peasants resemble the fruit of faith growing through grace. Yet their lowered faces and simple dress hint at a somber recognition of humanity's imperfections. Just as the weeds ambiguously sprout up among the wheat, even these devoted peasants may waver between virtues and vices.
At the same time, their posture of humble supplication embodies the Psalmist's attitude of reliance upon God's mercy. Their prayer amidst their work in the fields visualizes the trust expressed in the Psalm and Collect. The painting's subdued color palette and realist style also convey the sincere spirituality of these ordinary laborers. Just as the epistle addresses all creation awaiting transformation, these peasants long for divine redemption from earthly troubles. Their simple faith poignantly embodies the "groaning in labor pains" that St. Paul describes. The connection to death is even more poignant if, as Dali suggested (and as modern research has corroborated) Millet was originally intending to paint a funeral scene.
Ultimately this earnest scene of prayer invites the viewer to immerse themselves in the peasants' world, and follow their example. Despite life's obscurities and toils, we are invited to persist in faith through communal prayer and throwing ourselves upon God's grace. Our human flaws only make God's patience and wisdom shine brighter. Thus Millet's Angelus offers a stirring echo of the emphasis we hear in this week's Scriptures on the mercies of Providence that sustain us amidst suffering and uncertainty.
For you, Lord, are good and gracious, and of great mercy to all those who call upon you.
— Psalm 86:5
Eighth Sunday after Pentecost
Texts for This Week
Prayer
O God, you declare your almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity: Grant us the fullness of your grace, that we, running to obtain your promises, may become partakers of your heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
The Unanswered Question
Says Leonard Bernstein about this “mystic” yet “playful” piece, “This music says it all — better than a thousand words!” Of course, Bernstein was telling a story about the sudden death of tonality in 20th C Classical music. Ives, for his part, thought of himself as tackling a perineal existential question. And we can take it as an example as another kind of discordance: a picture of that dichotomy between wheat and tares that we encounter in this week’s Gospel lesson.
The abrupt dissonance in Ives' piece shocks listeners with its sudden smashing of traditional tonality, much as the parable of the wheat and tares jars us by upending expectations of order and justice. The startling question phrases from the probing trumpet seem to demand an explanation for the illogical coexistence of good and evil, purity and corruption.
Like Paul, and like our Parable, Ives provokes us into reflects the contradictions of the human heart and spirit. Ives gives us clashing tones to audibly depict that tension between our high ideals and basest impulses, virtue and vice. The stately strings suggest the soul's fundamental goodness, while the brash trumpet echoes its selfish desires. Maybe. Or is it the other way around? Like the wheat and tares, these aspects are inextricably intermingled in this life … and it’s sometimes unclear which is which.
The yearning trumpet persists against the unperturbed background, much as our restless spirits chafe against God's patience and inscrutable wisdom. Our finite minds cannot comprehend the paradox of mercy and judgement. And yet, the music flows onward, holding out hope of ultimate resolution. The dissonance is unsettled rather than chaotic. So too God's purpose stands above the discordance of creation. The question is unanswered … and it is also unanswerable.
Cyprian of Carthage on the Patience of God
How wonderful, how great is the patience of God!
He endures most patiently the profane temples, the earthly images, the idolatrous rites that have been set up by men in insult to His majesty and honor.
He makes the day to rise and the sun to shine equally over the good and the evil.
When He waters the earth with showers, no one is excluded from His benefits: He bestows His rains without distinction on the just and the unjust alike.
The seasons obey and the elements serve.
The winds blow and the fountains flow.
The harvests increase, the vines ripen.
The trees grow heavy with fruit, the groves become green, and the meadows burst into flower:
All this from the Divine Will, with an indivisible uniformity of patience toward the guilty and the innocent, the religious and the impious, the grateful and the ungrateful!
Although God is provoked by frequent — even continual! — offenses, He tempers His anger and patiently waits for the day that he has appointed.
Vengeance is in His power, but He prefers to be long-suffering in His patience.
He waits steadfastly and delays in His mercy, so that, if it is at all possible, our long career of malice at last may change, and, however deeply we are infected with the contagion of error and crime, we may be converted to God, even at a late hour.
God Himself warns and says: “I desire not the death of a sinner, but that he may turn to me and live.” (cf. Ezekiel 18:32, also the absolution of the BCP)
“Return to Me, says the Lord!' (Jeremiah 4:1)
Again: “Return to the Lord your God, for He is merciful and loving, patient and rich in pity, and one who turns aside His judgment in respect to the evils proposed.” (Joel 2:13)
The blessed apostle Paul, calling back the sinner by reminding us of this, puts this question before us: “Do you despise the riches of His goodness and forbearance and patience? Do you not know that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. He will render to each one according to his works.” (Romans 2:4-6)
