Last autumn a friend of mine invited me to her wedding that would take place in August this year in Poland. I had been struggling with my overweight problem, getting dangerously close to obesity, sadly without any particular success. So I thought the date of the wedding would be a very good reference point and additional motivation to losing weight. Seemingly someone up there came to the same conclusion because on 8 January the BBC broadcasted a science documentary that gave me very clear ideas on what to do to lose weight. Eventually after six months I was ready. After the wedding I returned to Scotland, but not to my previous overweight. I’ve kept myself slim and sound since then.
Although I wasn’t the groom or a best man at that wedding in some ways it visibly changed my life. However the wedding party certainly was very pleasant and we had a good time; it was just the climax of a much longer process. My life had changed as I was preparing for that event. The result of the changes has remained after the event.
We obviously know that our everyday life is rarely an unbroken chain of exciting things happening one after another. Repetitive activities fill our life with a tiresome similarity, making every day virtually identical. Weekends and holidays are those moments that can inject some exciting variety into our routine. Quite a lot of people can survive dull days thanks to the prospect of forthcoming events. So now imagine a situation where the only reality is doing the same tiresome work day by day, month by month, year by year without any prospect of change; without weekends and holidays. That was the reality of slaves and workers in the ancient world. Judaism introduced the Sabbath as an unconditional day off for everyone. Christianity continued that trend shifting the day off to Sunday, the day of Jesus Christ’s resurrection.
The Catholic Church insisted for centuries to keeping Sunday as a day off, under the sanction of sin. However today it might sound oppressive, for centuries it was giving a rest to overburdened peasants and workers. Nowadays attending Sunday mass for many seems an unpleasant duty, but for centuries the celebration was something uplifting, supporting and giving strength. It was also a sort of art or theatre, casting a beam of light into grimness of everyday life. Nowadays we don’t need the Church to provide such entertainment any more; we simply can’t beat the glamorous and sparkling world of ‘Strictly come dancing’ or ‘X Factor’. But the Church offers us something far more substantial, invigorating and life-keeping: the word of God to sustain our hope, faith and love; and the body and blood of Jesus Christ. We have a permanent invitation to a wedding party, perhaps odd in outward appearance, but powerful inwardly. There is just one requirement: your positive response.