E=mc2: ecclesiastically speaking

Yesterday, of course, was the Feast of Our Lord's Transfiguration on Mout Tabor. I didn't go out to Mass.

The first reason was that I am recovering from the flu (which may or may not have been of the Swine variety) which was sufficiently potent to keep me indoors and away from folk of a more fragile constitution.

The second reason that a Mass for the Feast wasn't actually being offered by the parish, probably moving the celebration to the Sunday.

Why do we have this practice of moving the celebration of important feasts to the nearest Sunday, and forget others completely?

This does seem a modern phenomenon: even I, in my comparative youth, remember the Feasts of Corpus Christi, of the Transfiguration and of St Peter and St Paul's being celebrated with midweek Masses. These days a celebration will only occur if the feast falls on a day when a Mass is being held.

Why? Is it solely because "people don't go to midweek Masses any more", the reason being that they are too tired from working? Is it because the priest is frightened by having too tiny a congregation?

To the numbers obsessed clergy, we can easily warn with the Prophet Zechariah against "despising the day of small things". They are not priests for numbers, they are priests for the glory of God and the service of His Church whether that expression of Church be a Cathedral, or a housing estate in Brixton.

There is an issue as to why people do not come to church on weekdays - because they are too tired from working. Of course we are! Work is hard and we try to do a good job and earn our wage. However this does speak of a sad indictment of how the Church is performing in society.

Consider: one of the reasons for Mass is spiritual nourishment, a re-energising effect on the soul. If our Masses are not giving that energy to the congregation, then there must be something wrong with the way we are doing our Mass. Seeing that Christ Himself speaks of the living water that wells up within each of us for our continuing refreshment, one wonders whether the practices of the Church have rather sought to stem the flow of this water so that coming to Church is more of a chore than a joy.

I've spoken before about the inherent Apathy, Complacency and Apostasy that are infecting our society - "don't care, can't care, won't care". The spiritual problem is that of accidie and seems to have overrun the C of E with it's desitre to distract people with innovation which undermine its own teaching such as the ludicrous service of Wedding-cum-Baptism - how is the Church supposed to speak out against the erosion of the family through fornication now that it liturgically supports it, Dr Williams?

The Church needs to seek ways of energising its congregants. Lack of Energy is a sign of the lack of the Holy Spirit acting in the Church life and in her members, and ultimately leads to a vicious cycle of disenchantment and disbelief.

At the risk of seeming a bit gimmicky and silly, Einstein's (overcited) equation E=mc² could still stand if E stands for the energy derived from Mass, m stands for the quality of the Mass done and c the effort that one puts in to living a prayerful Christian life. I suppose that one could interpret that equation in other ways!