In Mystic Sweet Communion

The period of All Saints to Advent in the Church is not so much a season, as a brief emotional and spiritual rollercoaster ride. We spend a long period of ordinary time steadily climbing the rungs of the liturgical ladder to embark upon this particular journey from a high point on All Saints Sunday, with a hearty celebration of the Faithful from ages past; those whose rest is won and whose lives continue to inspire us to deepen our own discipleship. But no sooner have we set off than the pace slows for a more intimate and present remembrance, as we commemorate the faithful departed of our own time on All Souls Day; those whose lives have been more personally entwined with ours.

Then we take a steep turn towards Remembrance Sunday; recalling the sacrifice of so many who have given their lives in the cause of peace, before ending the liturgical year with a celebration of Christ’s sovereignty on the Feast of Christ the King. 

However, just as we think we may disembark this particular rollercoaster, we know that the journey isn’t over yet as we are in fact only just emerging at the dawn of a new year on Advent Sunday, with its dual recognition of the anticipatory heralding of Christ’s second coming, merged with a final acceleration towards celebrating his first coming at Christmas.

Such a juxtaposition of solemnity and festivity in a short span might leave us feeling a little dizzy but, it is an important journey to travel together and to make sense of as a community. However, it is not only the community of St Mary’s in Oxford, or even of Christians across the globe, who navigate the twists and turns of the changing season alongside the twists and turns of their own individual lives. But we are bound by our remembrance, to a community which is much bigger than the temporal-spatial gathering we encounter in the pews on a Sunday. In the Eucharist we are joined together in that ‘mystic sweet communion’ which is both present to us in the here and now, and waits to welcome us into its number when our own rest is won.

This is fellowship: not that we are all like-minded, or of similar temperament, or even share all of our values; but that we are members of a body (temporal and eternal) who travel together through the ups and downs of each season. Who are bound together by the One we follow, and who commit to break bread and pray together whether the ride ahead is rocky or smooth.