Journeying to Grace

Colors make a difference. I remember discussing in a marketing class years ago that fast food restaurants often use bright colors to discourage their patrons from staying too long. Customers eating quickly then leaving make room for new customers to do the same. It’s a plan that satisfies both the restaurant and the customers. Whereas finer-dining restaurants have been known to incorporate darker, more soothing colors and soft ambiance to encourage their guests to stay long enough to enjoy appetizers, drinks, dinner, and dessert. There’s nothing wrong with either approach or design, but they typically don’t go together.

I attended a weekday church service this week and encountered what at first seemed to be two sets of colors and decorations not ‘going together,’ but after some reflection, I found the display before me to be very telling. I didn’t need to choose or focus on one or the other because both (or what they represent) are spiritually at work. Not too long ago, we moved from the purple for the preparation of Advent to the beaming white for the holy joy of Christmas. This recent Sunday’s Feast of the Baptism of the Lord officially ended the Christmas season of ‘white,’ so the ‘green’ of Ordinary Time began this Monday. At this church, the decorations were somewhere in between. The beautifully decorated Christmas trees, lights, and nativity scene had been removed. And though the white banners had been replaced with green, along with Father’s vestments, garland still gracefully hung across the length of the altar, and poinsettias remained, honoring many significant areas. The gradual work of transforming the church from Christmas to Ordinary Time had begun but wasn’t yet complete.

We are also experiencing the gradual work of transformation, and our renewal as members of the Body of Christ has begun but is not complete. Our Christmas decorations are down, we’ve probably eaten the last of the sweet treats, and our seasonal greetings have likely been sent. Even though these signs of the season are no longer visible, we continue to carry the hope of Emmanuel while navigating the beginning of Jesus’s ministry and what that means to us. We don’t choose one or the other; we experience both, live in both, and grow in both.

We have just over a month before we begin Lent and its reflective journey of prayer and penance. Let us embrace this special in between time and pray we continue to be renewed by the hope of the Savior’s birth while we welcome God’s loving transformation in our heart and spirit.