Wholed up
My emotions sweep from one to the next about my first Sunday without Receiving Jesus at Mass in the ten years since deciding to become Catholic. Like many of us I’m sure this morning my mind keeps flitting to check the time, to make sure we’ve left enough time to observe the fast, to a realisation that this is a Sunday like no other. So far.
I’d realised this last part of lent would be different, I’d been quite excited about the prospect of working from home, those extra hours of time to pray and “do Lent well” this year. To suddenly find our home of two now swelled to six including two young children in difficult circumstances and that ethereal silence replaced by chatter, noise, meal times, mess and madness…..and I’m laughing at how very much more God is present in that, in our little domestic church….the front room.
I have a clear picture of the Upper room right now, the windows shuttered up, the door bolted and a bunch of scruffy fearful Christians hiding in the darkness of it. All of them wondering what comes next, what has happened and where is their God and what horror awaits them outside should they venture out? The truth is we have been living like this a lot longer than these virus days.
But WE, my friends know the next part of the story, we know what comes next. We know that they don’t stay locked in that room forever, they don’t hole up with the blessed Virgin Mary and live their days out there, it’s a time spent in prayer preparing for the coming of the Holy Spirit. It’s from this handful of weak, scared confused Christians that I, we, know about Christ today.
These are our very own pre Pentecost, upper room days. So just wait, draw breath, prepare your hearts, God is doing some thing enormous. It’s a time to be Wholed up in readiness.
