This is an in‑between day: poised between Sunday and the
feast of the Epiphany, which brings the Christmas season to a close in the
Western Church. The secular world is still recovering from the commercial and
culinary excesses of the winter‑lights industry, even as ordinary life shifts
back into a higher gear.
Tomorrow’s Epiphany is, in many parts of the Catholic world,
a Holy Day of Obligation, akin to Sunday. There was a time in Ireland when this
was instinctively understood: schools closed, the self‑employed arranged their
day around Mass, and public servants could slip out for an hour to attend a
nearby church. Today, most people scarcely register the feast at all. The
secular celebration of Nollaig na mBan has partly taken its place,
carrying its own worthy themes of equality and empowerment.
Yet one constant remains amid all the changes of culture and
custom: the Mass, “the source and summit of the Christian life.” I have always
preferred to see the Eucharist not as a legal duty but as an immeasurable
privilege — something no one with a living faith would willingly miss, given
the chance to participate and to receive the Body and Blood of the One once
adored by the magi in an obscure corner of the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.