Friday Thought with Fr Chris Ferguson: Evaluating our priorities

After week one of lockdown, there is good news and bad news. I announced last week that I was on cooking duties; the good news, I haven’t poisoned Fr Gerard yet. The bad news, Fr Gerard wants to cook Sunday dinner. For a person who struggles to boil an egg or microwave porridge, this is quite an undertaking. To add insult to injury, Fr Gerard, has ordered a new slow cooker, obviously the old one wasn’t slow enough. I’m, actually not joking, the new slow cooker is coming in the second-class post. I mentioned last Sunday, how I catered for Fr Michael and Fr Gerard, while it was Fr Gerard’s first supper, for some reason it was Fr Michael’s last supper. I haven’t seen Fr McCaughey all the week. Every time I mentioned cooking, whether lunch or dinner; Fr Michael was always busy, he even used the excuse he was washing his hair. Before Fr Gerard’s lunch rather than pray grace, I might pray the prayer of St Michael the Archangel, all protection might be required, as I stand up to Fr Gerard’s slow cooked chicken.

During the week Fr Gerard was at one end of the table and I was at the other. I hope your impressed with the social distancing; Fr Gerard even used a tape measure to make sure we were six feet apart. As I was trying to digest my pasta, I forget, which shape it was on this particular day; Fr Gerard asked, ‘Do you not like potatoes?’ The pleading in his voice, suggests this might have been a cry for help, in other words, a change to the menu. All humour aside, between WhatsApp groups and the new social media phenomena of House-Party; in a virtual sense, we have never had more contact. Yet one problem, concerns the lack of personal presence, there is something important about bodily presence, being present physically to someone. Much of our modern world has become disembodied, we have become one step removed from one another. In the current climate there is a necessary reason to keep our distance, in a desire to keep others and ourselves safe. Yet, we cannot predict the future, and one of the greatest sources of frustration, even helplessness, is not knowing how long this present reality will last. This lack of bodily contact, whether the absence of family, friends, the Eucharist; is an opportunity to reevaluate our priorities, to reconsider what we really cherish and hold dear. In the scene from the fourth Gospel, we learn how Jesus is the very revelation, the bodily making present of God’s desire to offer his people, the fullness of life.

Like Lazarus in the tomb, we can all feel, dead, restricted and bound. When we hear the echo of Jesus’ words to the bystanders, to unbind Lazarus; what do we hear, what do we understand by these words? Confined in our homes, restricted in our lives, what does having the fullness of life mean? What Jesus is offering his followers, is a share in his life with the Father, an eternal relationship, which even transforms and conquers death. In this time of fear and uncertainty, we’re reminded, if we stand united with the Body of Christ, the Christian community; we can live in the hope that sickness and death, will not have the final say. Jesus transforms suffering through love. As we approach Holy Week and the time of Christ’s passion, we have an opportunity to appreciate the value or our bodies, our physical lives and the hope of bodily resurrection. God’s offers us the gift of eternal life, can we offer the gift of our embodied lives, through the love we show and the sacrifices we make as an offering to God and one another.

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