Friday Thought with Fr Chris Ferguson: The bleak midwinter

It has been a long-standing tradition to wait until after the Feast of the Epiphany before beginning the annual declutter. There are numerous reasons why I dread the taking down of the Christmas tree and the decorations. I’ve always appreciated the season as a period to break out of the ordinary, especially in the midst of winter.

Behind all the lights, noise and festivities, there is still a hint that something significant is taking place. For so many reasons I feel a cloud has descended this week, especially with the home and the church looking so bare, after the crib, tree and decorations have been tidied away for another year.

Then you have the bringers of joy who announce, Christmas is as far away as ever. It seems some people have a vocation to be Scrooge or Grinch all year around. Another reason I hated the ritual of packing away, is the Christmas tree itself.

My Christmas tree is several years old but it has a number of advantages, most notably, its only five feet fall. This was a deliberate choice to make it easier for me to decorate the tree, without the aid of a stepladder, especially as I’m afraid of heights. Another feature of the tree, which I appreciate are the lights, they’re built in. Thankfully, I don’t have to untangle or sort out lights every year.

With all the lockdown rules and social distancing, I had to take down the decorations on my own this year. I managed everything fairly successfully until I had to cart the boxes downstairs, let’s just say, I’ll never make it as an undertaker.

The emptiness of the last few days, has been amplified by the closure of our churches, to the public celebration of Mass. The eeriness and the large and empty spaces of this building, emphasize the reason we build churches. We’re meant to gather as a believing community in a physical place, primarily to give thanks and praise to God, and to encounter and celebrate the body of Christ, holy communion. The focus during Mass has always been to become what we receive, namely the body of Christ. Unfortunately, in the light of modernity we are tempted to believe we gather only as individuals, by concentrating simply on my relationship with God. Whilst the word Eucharist is translated as, to give thanks; what do we understand of the word communion. Personally, I know during the liturgy, I can fall into the trap of putting the blinkers on, solely concentrating on my part, my role. Is this a temptation, many of us can fall into to; do you and I, believe the Mass is a private celebration, and my prayer time? o we believe we have certain rights to the Mass, and the eucharist? Yet from moment of our baptism, we need to appreciate how faith is a gift. From the biggest sinner to the greatest saint, we do not have a right to approach the altar! You and I can only approach the altar because God calls, but hearing this call, we have to respond. And we respond together through the entire celebration of the ritual of the Mass. Although, we can be tempted to believe we have attended Mass simply through receiving holy communion. Can we truly say we have received the body of Christ, if we have not asked our God and our neighbour for forgiveness, if we haven’t listened and responded to God’s Word.

, and so been prepared for the invitation to gather around the Lord’s table. Maybe these weeks when we can’t physically receive the Eucharist, could become an opportunity to appreciate the richness of ritual and the words of the Mass. In the celebration of Holy Communion, God strengthens our communion with Him and with one another. We cannot come before the altar of God on our own, the very nature of God, in whose image we are made, is a communion of person’s.

Through baptism, we entered into a relationship with this communion of persons, but it has to be lived here and now in a faith community and a family, where together we learn to call God, Our Father.