Rogation means an asking of God – for blessing on the seed and land for the year ahead. It is appropriate in any emergency, war, plague, drought or foul weather.
The practice began with the Romans, who invoked the help of the gods Terminus and Ambarvalia. In those days a crowd moved in procession around the cornfields, singing and dancing, sacrificing animals, and driving away Winter with sticks. They wanted to rid the cornfields of evil.
About 465 the Western world was suffering from earthquake, storm and epidemic. So Mamertius, Bishop of Vienne, aware of the popular pagan custom, ordered that prayers should be said in the ruined or neglected fields on the days leading up to Ascension. With his decision, ‘beating the bounds’ became a Christian ceremonial.
Rogation-tide arrived in England early in the eighth century, and became a fixed and perennial asking for help of the Christian God. On Rogation-tide, a little party would set out to trace the boundaries of the parish. At the head marched the bishop or the priest, with a minor official bearing a Cross, and after them the people of the parish, with schoolboys and their master trailing along. Most of them held slender wands of willow.
At certain points along the route – at well-known landmarks like a bridge or stile or ancient tree, the Cross halted, the party gathered about the priest, and a litany or rogation as said, imploring God to send seasonable wealth, keep the corn and roots and boughs in good health, and bring them to an ample harvest. At one point beer and cheese would be waiting.
In the days when maps were neither common nor accurate, there was much to be said for ‘beating the bounds’ – still very common as late as the reign of Queen Victoria. Certainly parish boundaries rarely came into dispute, for everyone knew them. Do you know our parish boundaries?
‘I am the Good Shepherd’
There is a remarkable story about a shepherd in the Yorkshire Dales many years ago. During a particular severe winter, he went out to search for his sheep. Sadly he never returned, and a search party discovered his dead body beneath many feet of snow. His neighbours were stunned and upset by his death, but they were also puzzled. The shepherd had been clasping the third finger of his left hand. Nobody could explain this, until a schoolmistress recalled a lesson she had taught her children. She would make them recite ‘The Lord is my shepherd’, and at each word she would point to a finger of her hand, beginning with the thumb. (Thumb) The (Index) Lord (Middle) is (Ring) my (Little) Shepherd. The mystery was solved, for as the man lay dying in the dreadful wind and cold, he was affirming his faith that God was his shepherd, and so he had nothing to fear.
The image of the Good Shepherd has been a powerful and pervasive picture from the earliest days of Christianity in expressing that very faith. It has been found in the catacombs, and was often carved on sarcophagi. Just as Crimond is popular at funerals today, so that image of the shepherd marked out funeral rites in the first centuries of Christian life. It is the image we are focussing on in May : a marble statue of Jesus the Good Shepherd, which may have been part of a tomb decoration. It was discovered in the catacomb of Domitilla and dates from the late 3rd century. The statue is now in one of the Vatican museums.
Jesus is portrayed as a beardless young man with a sleeveless tunic and bag. The influence on the sculpture is very much classical, and the artist was borrowing his portrayal from depictions of Orpheus, who in ancient legend tamed animals and restored the dead to life. But the sculptor was also affirming his own faith that Jesus had conquered death, and so life for all who followed Christ was always new and ageless.
In the sculpture Jesus has found the lost sheep and is bearing him back to the flock. But he is not just the one who seeks the lost: he will lay down his own life and ward off all danger for the sheep, both as the door to the sheepfold and as the one who is crucified.
In these weeks after Easter we can reflect on what our Lord has gained for us by his death and resurrection. The image of the Good Shepherd here in this sculpture and in scripture lays it before us vividly. Jesus protects his sheep; he cares for them; he loves them; he believes in them; and above all he never lets them down. Substitute ‘us’ for ‘them’ and we will know something of the power of this image and the joy of eternal life, which Easter celebrates.
May 29 Rogation Sunday