When I was a child, summer was long and restful with plenty of time for leisure and fun. School ended in June, and you knew that the next school year was forever away. The sunny days of summer were long and wondrous and fun.
These days, summer is still my favorite season—but it flies by so quickly. There is never enough time to squeeze in all that needs to be done and everything we want to do. I always imagine day trips with our children and time for swimming and exploration and relaxation.
Then I wake up one morning and it’s the end of August, and I’m wondering why we haven’t visited a single snowball stand. I wish I could say that’s because we’re working so hard on our summer reading assignments, but that isn’t true.
This year I didn’t plan much for our children. I want our teens to spend time at home and in our neighborhood. I hope they will ride bicycles and swim and shoot baskets with friends and just be themselves. I have memories of long hot unplanned days from my childhood, and I like to think that they can have more of that.
I went to Mass yesterday because it was the Feast of the Chinese Martyrs. I came home reflecting on one line in the Gospel—and the words from Luke have stayed with me: “The harvest is abundant, but the laborers are few.”
Summer is a time of abundance. This season is overflowing with possibility. There is a richness and a joy to summer that I cherish, even on the hottest days when everyone around me is complaining about heat and humidity. I simply love summer. And maybe it’s because with vacations from school, so much seems possible.
When I look around, I see the abundance of the harvest—the possibilities everywhere. But, of course, there are never enough laborers to do the work. I see that in our Church, where there is so much work to be done and never enough vocations and volunteers to carry it forward. I see that in our community, where people are hungry and in need and don’t have enough resources to turn to.
In so many facets of our lives, there are not enough people to carry the work forward. But there is so much to harvest. There is so much to celebrate and to soak in and to embrace. And summer is a time to recognize the abundance of the harvest—and the role we can play as laborers in making the most of this time for God.
I hope your summer is a time of abundant harvest. I hope you feel called to labor that is rewarding and that yields a crop. And I hope you are finding time to rest and play and consider all the possibilities that lie ahead for you.
And I hope you won’t get to Labor Day and realize you haven’t had a snowball yet this season.
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