The Now of the Liturgical Year

 

It’s that time again, time to transfer all the special days of the year to the new year’s calendar.  Birthdays, anniversaries, even the dates of the deaths of those close to me—anything I need to remember to mark will be planted on the days of 2011.   As I fill out the new calendar, I look at  the days of 2010 to reflect back on what celebrations and activities filled the time.   Not only do last year’s markings tell me what I did, but by the activities and the relationships that I kept, they tell me who I was.

This is not unlike how the Church views its liturgical calendar.  Through its various seasons and feasts, the liturgical calendar teaches us who we are as followers of Christ.  For example, celebrating the feasts of All Saints and All Souls affirms our belief in everlasting life!

While we follow Jesus throughout the liturgical year, we do not go back in time to commemorate his biography.  We do not go back to first-century Palestine anymore than we go back to the hospital where we were born to mark our birthdays.   It is our “present” experience of Jesus that the church calls us to celebrate.   I think of the words of the Exsultet sung at the Easter Vigil:  “This is the night,” or the words of the psalm for Easter “This is the day the Lord has made.”  

For most of us, it is not easy to live in the present.  Try meditating or really focusing for a time and count how many seconds until your mind drifts to the past or the future.  The liturgical year reminds us that God is never in the past or the future, but right here, right now, today.

O Lord, help us to live in the present, forgive the past and not fear the future.  Keep our minds attuned to the present moment, ever watchful for you.  AMEN.