The leaves are faded and falling as the summer has passed again. The sun’s light still shines in the sky, but it brings little warmth as the days grow shorter. The gradually sinking temperatures hint at the long winter ahead. Soon the ice, and snow, and the wind that chills to the bone, and the overcast clouds that blot out the daylight will reign. The winter is magical for children, but for the adult who gets no snow-days off, but for absolute calamity, it forces one to witness their mortality. The long darkness moves one to question the cycling of seasons, and question if the return of Spring is truly inevitable, let alone even possible. Until that first winter day comes, we enjoy the fall for all that it is with festivals and fires.
We journey through our solar calendar, but by the lunar, that most have left behind, the veil between this world and the unseen thins and blends. Not all celebrate or even know, but those that do use this brief time to walk their West-facing paths. Not a few can feel their workings in the air. Those who, in secret and by secret, observe as above to search for what’s guided so below point to a false light; a sun behind the sun. The false star behind the Son is not serious to us, but merely a fallen shadow. We look past the present darkness to the Light of Light. The One who leans not on our realm, but wears it as a garment; holding it together by His providence.
The death and resurrection of the seasons that we take for granted to point to Christ’s true death and resurrection. O death, where is thy sting? Hades, where is thy power? They were dashed to pieces when Christ trampled down death by death. We are baptized into that same death and resurrection. Death was made a portal to life for us who partake of the Mystical Supper, so we don’t fear the long winter, nor those who can only kill the body. Our souls are warmed by the light uncreated which immaterially shines upon us. If we don’t live to see another Spring on this Earth, then we rejoice in our going home. For to die is gain. But if we survive the dark months, then we rejoice in our sojourn. For to live is Christ.