Friday in the Twenty-Ninth Week of Ordinary Time

That metaphor accurately describes one of my first work assignments at New Melleray.  I had to shovel out horse manure that was two feet deep in one of our barns. I thought I would die. Now, after living on a farm for over sixty years, I appreciate the nutrient value so rich in nitrogen, manifested by that pungent odor, and how necessary it is if a field is going to yield an abundant harvest.

St. Bernard calls the monastery an earthly dunghill in his sermon for the feast of the Apostles Peter and Paul¹ He writes, “Dung is not very attractive to the eye, but it is very useful for bearing fruit. We should not be repelled by its ugliness if we wish to make our land fruitful. For it is out of the ugly heap of dung which we spread on the fields that beautiful sheaves of golden corn spring up. We who dwell in this earthly dunghill, (the monastery!), also have the rain of heaven given to us, i.e. devotion in prayer, joy in chanting the psalms, the sweetness of meditation, and the comfort of the Scriptures.”

I wonder if the child Jesus ever had to clean out the barn where Mary and Joseph sheltered their mule. Being a country boy, it wouldn’t have bothered him.  I think he probably enjoyed spreading manure around the fig trees in their yard and looked forward to the good fruit it would produce.

1. St. Bernard’s Sermons for the Seasons and Principal Festivals of the Year, Vol. 3, The Carroll Press, Westminster Maryland, 1950, 201.