This morning I went to Daily Mass at our local Church. It was the first time I have been to Church since the COVID-19 virus caused churches to close their doors three months ago. As I sat in the near-empty Church, wondering how many people might come back after almost 3 months, I let the sacredness of the space slowly seep once more into my inner being.
Then, one by one the familiar faces slowly drift in and took their scattered places. Eighteen people, enveloped by stillness, as the air breathed familiar words.
People gathered. Bread is broken and shared. The Eternal Word offered and received.
I found myself reflecting on Teilhard de Chardin's 'Mass on the World' where he allows his theology to become his experience. Teilhard, a brilliant Natural scientist, palaeontologist and theologian, censored and 'banished' to China in the 1920s by his own Jesuit family due to his evolutionary view of Christianity; a priest without bread, wine, or altar, takes the whole of creation as his altar and on it offered all the work and sufferings of the world as his bread and wine as he gathered into his arms:
all those that will diminish; and all those too that will die:
For me, Eucharist is just that – a dramatic reminder and engagement with God who is in all things – holding all things together, both in time and in eternity. It is a 'thin place' of energy. A place where the veil between this world and the eternal, parts, and where I am invited 'to see, feel, and grow into God', as Sri Chimoy encouraged us in my first blog, as we learn 'to look for and seek God in everything':
Here faith can touch and handle things unseen;
Here would I grasp with firmer hand Thy grace,
And all my weariness upon Thee lean.
Kia mau te rongo me te pai ki a koe i to haerenga
May you find peace and good will on your journey.
Phil
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