The liturgical or church year ends today, there are probably a number of other things we would like to end today, but let’s not go there.
Since March, for many of us patterns of daily life have been restricted and yearly cycles disrupted, this has resulted in our sense of time being challenged; while the concept of time remains the same.
I won’t dare to attempt to explain time, though I relate not so much to Aristotle but more to St. Augustine and what he said, “I know what time is until you ask me for a definition about it, and then I can’t give it to you”. Though it is fairly safe to say that time involves progress, metabolism, ageing, memory and is irreversible; among other things.
From earliest times the Church has gathered on Sundays to celebrate the good news of Jesus Christ. Over time an annual cycle of Christian memory-making has also developed, which allows us to remember his life, death, and resurrection; to celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit; and to recall the ministry of the holy people who have spread the Christian faith over the centuries – what we call the liturgical or church year…
We will be soon celebrating Advent, a time of preparation and expectation, but first we have to say goodbye to this season of ordinary time. There will have been things we have loved and we have lost, but remember – to lose means we have known love; for it is only those things we hold dear that we can really lose. Let’s use this time to bring before God, with the confidence that only Christ can give, those things we have lost and mourn, and those things that elude and we long for. Holding on to the words in Jeremiah, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope”.
I encourage us to say good bye to the season ending and hello to the season beginning. The season of Advent where we remember Emmanuel and celebrate God with us. Remembering the world we will live in tomorrow will not be the world we live in today, acknowledging the world we live in tomorrow will be shaped by us today and living as though God is with, because God is.
Ben Sheridan
