Pilgrimage During the Pandemic

Many people have been criticizing our leaders in the Church for cancelling all public Masses while we quarantine for the pandemic and many complain of not being able to receive the Sacraments.  I must admit hearing those things does trouble me.  It makes me wonder what the Church should do.  Is She merely pandering to the government decisions to avoid outright conflict?  Is She thus abandoning Her mission to nourish our faith by treating the physical health and well-being of the most vulnerable as more important than our spiritual health?

Perhaps She might be rather calling us to enter more deeply into the mystical reality.  I have written already of our being called to receive the Sacrament of the Present Moment.  Now, however, I mean far more than that: I mean the eternal reality.

For the Church as we know Her will not endure.  The Sacraments will pass away.  The Eucharist, as precious a gift as It is, will no longer be needed.

When we come to the Eternal City, we shall be face to face with the living God, with I-Am-Who-Am.  We shall no longer need to receive through Sacraments, which make visible the invisible, providing grace to sustain us in our exile here in this valley of tears, for we shall then be in intimate union with Him.

All the grace we receive is meant to prepare us for that.  Reception of the Eucharist in particularly brings us into intimate relationship with Christ, our crucified Lord.

Does it?

"I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.  Thou shalt not have strange gods before me."

Exodus 20:2-3

Despite this commandment, we often allow our minds and hearts to turn to idols without realizing it.  Even our spiritual practices may become idols.  It is far easier to cling to devotions and the practice of the spiritual life than to come into a deep and intimate relationship with the Unknown God—the God we can never fully understand because He is infinite and we mere finite creatures.

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts: nor your ways my ways, saith the Lord.  For as the heavens are exalted above the earth, so are my ways exalted above your ways, and my thoughts above your thoughts."

Isaiah 55:8-9

The moment we believe we have understood the mind of God is the moment we have created God in our own image.  If that's not an idol, I don't know what is.

Perhaps that may sound extreme to you.  Perhaps you may wonder why I mention this possibility.

I will tell you: it is because I am trying to take seriously the call to conversion in this time.  I don't want to fall into criticizing our leaders in the Church or in our government, placing myself on the high pedestal of godhood in dictating what ought to happen in these present circumstances.  I don't want to fall into that trap even in the hidden corners of my heart.

Rather, I want this time of quarantine to bear the same fruit that grew from that of the Desert Fathers who chose isolation as a way to encounter God.  I want to see the harvest like unto that of those who seek a life of contemplation in the cloister.  I want my heart and mind to be converted.  In short, I seek and pray for that true metanoia that is to be transformed by Him who is leading us from glory to glory (see 2 Corinthians 3:18) that I may be purified of all attachment to sin or self-seeking, ready to see Him face to face.

I don't want to fall into desolation or despondency or frustration at being deprived of what I deem necessary.  I don't want to believe I am merely in a state of suspended animation, waiting for the virus to end.

Rather, I want to see these days in the desert as communion with the Father.  I want to see them as time to give Him my fiat as our Lady did when the Angel Gabriel appeared to her and told her that she would be the Mother of the Messiah and as Christ did in the Garden of Gethsemane when He asked that the cup of suffering should pass Him by:

"Nevertheless not what I will,
but what Thou wilt."

Luke 22:42

Pray for that for me.

I will pray the same for you.

Receive the Blessed Sacrament

In his homily at Mass this morning, Pope Francis spoke of Saint Joseph as a just man, a man of faith, a man who recognized that he was not in control.  He lauded Joseph for his ability to enter into mystery.  At the same time, he warned that if the Church forgets how to live in mystery, She forgets how to adore.

Our life most particularly as Christians is to enter into mystery that we may adore the Lord by our daily lives.  That is what it means to belong to the Mystical Body of Christ.

In these days of social isolation and the cancellation of public Masses, we are called to a deeper recognition of that truth.  We no longer have the distraction, if you will, of the sensory elements of our faith that make visible the invisible.  Instead we have only the living reality of our own union with Christ through the gift of His grace made possible by the great mystery of the Incarnation which we will celebrate in only a few days.

Although most of us cannot receive Christ physically in the Eucharist, we can still receive Him.  Thanks to the benefits of modern technology we can still assist at Mass and we can make spiritual communions not just then but throughout our day.

Even more, however, we can receive Christ in every moment of every day.  Father Jean-Pierre de Caussade calls this reality the Sacrament of the Present Moment.  He traces this idea from the life of the Blessed Virgin and of Saint Joseph in his book Abandonment to Divine Providence:

"There are remarkably few extraordinary characteristics in the outward events of the life of the most holy Virgin, at least there are none recorded in holy Scripture. Her exterior life is represented as very ordinary and simple. She did and suffered the same things that anyone in a similar state of life might do or suffer. She goes to visit her cousin Elizabeth as her other relatives did. She took shelter in a stable in consequence of her poverty. She returned to Nazareth from whence she had been driven by the persecution of Herod, and lived there with Jesus and Joseph, supporting themselves by the work of their hands. It was in this way that the holy family gained their daily bread. But what a divine nourishment Mary and Joseph received from this daily bread for the strengthening of their faith! It is like a sacrament to sanctify all their moments. What treasures of grace lie concealed in these moments filled, apparently, by the most ordinary events. That which is visible might happen to anyone, but the invisible, discerned by faith, is no less than God operating very great things. O Bread of Angels! heavenly manna! pearl of the Gospel! Sacrament of the present moment! thou givest God under as lowly a form as the manger, the hay, or the straw. And to whom dost thou give Him? “Esurientes implevit bonis” (Luke i, 53). God reveals Himself to the humble under the most lowly forms, but the proud, attaching themselves entirely to that which is extrinsic, do not discover Him hidden beneath, and are sent empty away."

In these days there shall certainly be few extraordinary characteristics in our lives.  Our exterior life becomes simpler and simpler.  We suffer the same things as do others across the world.  We are called to reach out to those around us and to live supporting ourselves by the work of our hands.  Yet in all these things we likewise can receive treasures of grace.

If we are humble enough to accept what the Lord wants to do within us, it may be a powerful time of sanctification for us.  We must shed the false mask of pride, however, that seeks to control—that believes it can be in control—and recognize that to God alone belongs that power.

Our role is rather one of receptivity as both our Lady and Saint Joseph model for us so well.  The words of Father de Caussade on this point resonate well with our current situation:

"The passive part of sanctity is still more easy since it only consists in accepting that which we very often have no power to prevent, and in suffering lovingly, that is to say with sweetness and consolation, those things that too often cause weariness and disgust. Once more I repeat, in this consists sanctity. This is the grain of mustard seed which is the smallest of all the seeds, the fruits of which can neither be recognised nor gathered. It is the drachma of the Gospel, the treasure that none discover because they suppose it to be too far away to be sought. Do not ask me how this treasure can be found. It is no secret. The treasure is everywhere, it is offered to us at all times and wherever we may be. All creatures, both friends and enemies pour it out with prodigality, and it flows like a fountain through every faculty of body and soul even to the very centre of our hearts. If we open our mouths they will be filled. The divine activity permeates the whole universe, it pervades every creature; wherever they are it is there; it goes before them, with them, and it follows them; all they have to do is to let the waves bear them on."

Today, as always, that great treasure awaits you wherever you look: in your prayer and in your work, in your frustration and isolation, in any little joys that come across your path, in your gratitude for what you have, in your fears for the future, in your sorrow for those who are sick....

In all things, Christ is there, giving Himself to you in as true a fashion as through the Holy Eucharist.  He cannot help but give Himself, for He is love, and it is the nature of love to give itself until it has nothing left to give.  That love pours itself out into our hearts to the measure that we open them to receive it:

"Divine love then, is to those who give themselves up to it without reserve, the principle of all good. To acquire this inestimable treasure the only thing necessary is greatly to desire it. Yes, God only asks for love, and if you seek this treasure, this kingdom in which God reigns alone, you will find it. If your heart is entirely devoted to God, it is itself, for that very reason, the treasure and the kingdom that you seek and desire. From the time that one desires God and His holy will, one enjoys God and His will, and this enjoyment corresponds to the ardour of the desire."

Let us seek within ourselves for that desire and when we have found it, no matter how small its flickering flame, let us feed it that it may grow more and more.  The more we desire to receive God's love, the more we become receptive to it.  What we have received we can then in turn pour out in love of the Father's will manifest in every moment of our lives and in every face who turns to seek God in us.

That is the path to enter into mystery—into the mystery of relationship with the Creator of the universe who is Existence Itself—whose infinite nature must transcend our finite understanding.  As we live in that mystery, let us enter also into adoration: let us adore God in the Sacrament of the Present Moment.