And what of today?  The Eucharist itself is just the same except that there is no longer any danger in coming to it.  We have no long and arduous journey to make as did the Wise Men.  We do not have to get up at half past four or five o’clock in the morning and risk our lives as did the Early Christians.  For most people it is easy, for all it is safe.  Perhaps it is too easy and too safe, so that where once the danger of torture and death failed to keep people away, now less urgent reasons succeed.

And when that happens there is an empty place among those whom Our Lord presents to his Father at the Eucharist.  If that place is empty because of unavoidable duty or work that is one thing.  But it is quite another matter if someone can go but stays away instead.

Let us then resolve to be true and faithful to our obligation to be present at the Sunday Eucharist without fail, unless unavoidably prevented.  And let us be faithful not because it is an obligation, but because Our Saviour himself lovingly calls us and waits for us to take our place – a place which only we can take.

Reference

1. Society of SS Peter and Paul (1939) The Anglican Missal, London: Society of SS Peter and Paul.  (Extract is from the Secret for the Feast of the Epiphany, very slightly adapted).