Today is Nov. 26, Tuesday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time.
In the readings for today’s Mass, we read: “Another angel came out of the temple, crying out in a loud voice to the one sitting on the cloud, ‘Use your sickle and reap the harvest, for the time to reap has come, because the earth’s harvest is fully ripe.’ So the one who was sitting on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was harvested” (Rv 14:15-6).
The Book of Revelation invites us to reflect on God’s ultimate gathering of his people, the “harvest” of souls that will take place at the end of time.
Throughout Scripture, the idea of a harvest is used to convey a sacred process of growth, maturation and final gathering. Jesus’ parable of the wheat and the weeds (cf. Mt 13) foreshadows this Revelation image, where wheat and weeds grow together until harvest time. In that parable, we see the patient mercy of God, who allows both good and evil to coexist until the time of judgment, when the “wheat” — the righteous — will be gathered to God, and the “weeds” — those who reject God — will be separated. Like the farmer in this parable, God is patient, allowing each soul the opportunity to grow and mature, but at the end, there will be a final harvest when the faithful will be united with him in eternal life.
Jesus speaks similarly in the Gospel of John, where he tells his disciples that “the fields [are] ripe for the harvest” (Jn 4:35). Here, he calls his followers to participate in this gathering through evangelization, showing us that our role as disciples is to help prepare and nurture souls for the Kingdom. In this way, each soul brought to God in this life joins the great harvest at the end of time, reminding us of the urgency of our mission to share the Faith.
In Matthew 24, Jesus describes his return, “coming upon the clouds of heaven” with angels who will gather the elect from the four corners of the earth (v. 30, cf. 31). This image echoes the verse in Revelation, where the “one … sitting on the cloud” swings his sickle, reaping the earth’s harvest. Christ, as king and judge, will return to claim those who have followed him with faith and devotion. This is both a warning and a promise: the call to live a life worthy of his kingdom and the assurance that those who have remained faithful will be gathered to him.
This image also invites us to look inward, to ask ourselves if we are ready for the harvest. Are we living in a way that welcomes him as our king? Are we striving to be the wheat that endures the struggles of this world, standing tall amid the weeds? The final harvest reminds us of the need to be vigilant in faith, clinging to God’s grace as we await his return.
Let us pray:
Stir up the will of your faithful, we pray, O Lord, that, striving more eagerly to bring your divine work to fruitful completion, they may receive in greater measure the healing remedies your kindness bestows. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
My Daily Visitor spiritual reflections are a dose of daily Catholic inspiration from Our Sunday Visitor magazine.
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