We plough the fields
To open the mass at Arundel Cathedral this morning, we sang the epic harvest hymn We Plough The Fields And Scatter. As with most old songs like that, my memory raced back to school days.
It was one of my favourite hymns. The lyrics are so evocative, and the ‘prog’ chord sequence breaks into a strong beat. Our music teacher used to pound it out on the school piano at assembly, like he was leading a marching band. I later learned that Scottish and Irish settlers took such old hymns with them to America’s Wild West, where they helped to forge the rhythm of rock and roll.
The specific story behind We Plough The Fields is an interesting one. It was actually written in 1782 as The Peasant’s Song, part of a sketch by German newspaper editor Matthias Claudius. He was an atheist who turned to the Christian faith. Could it mean that in believing in the Creator, Claudius also reconnected with Creation? It wouldn’t be surprising, for he was also a Commissioner of Agriculture in Hesse Darmstadt.
Over the years I’ve heard various people’s stories of faith. Some of them will usually say when they recognised God and welcomed him into their world, Creation came alive in a new way: ‘He only is the Maker/Of all things near and far/He paints the wayside flower/He lights the evening star’. (Photo: Irish fields by Clive Price)
