We’ve been here before and we’ll be here again. The unknown and mysterious is no foreign concept to us in the Catholic Church or the rest of the Body of Christ... We have found ways to establish communities and chapels and regular masses in the hills of El Salvador, the towers of England, the illegal basements of China and even several stories underground in the crypts of Rome. We’ve also done so on war fields and in war machines all throughout history. Two of my favorite pictures of altars are the canoe that Saint John Paul 2 used as an altar with his youth group as a priest and a giant steam pipe a chaplain used as an altar for Latin Mass in the 1950’s with a hundred soldiers crowded around.
The Paschal Mystery that we consider so intensely and strive to engage through prayer, fasting, almsgiving and penance in this season of Lent is significant for many reasons. Firstly it is the means of our salvation. Secondly it has always been the way to confront challenges as Christians; by dying and rising. Also, it is the knowledge that for people of faith, every disappointment comes with at least one new advantage. Certainly saints such as St. Joan of Arc and St. Sebastian were isolated in prison. But the advantage was that they had special extra time to be with God. Certainly the underground Church in China would rather celebrate with their brothers and sisters in Christ in the main churches; but the advantage is that they get to live the faith in a way that the first Christians did and see first-hand the similar movements of the Spirit of God giving their communities life, direction and practical application. What are the accompanying advantages of these weeks of Coronavirus lockdown?
Certainly we will have new opportunities to fast via the cancellation of scheduled events, trips and plans we all had. But how might this be advantageous? In the season of Lent, we “give up” things as our way of fasting, don’t we? I understand this is a BIT much more than chocolate, but why do we fast? St. Basil the Great says, “Fasting gives birth to prophets and strengthens the powerful; fasting makes lawgivers wise. Fasting is a good safeguard for the soul, a steadfast companion for the body, a weapon for the valiant, and a gymnasium for athletes. Fasting repels temptations, anoints unto piety; it is the comrade of watchfulness and the artificer of chastity. In war it fights bravely, in peace it teaches stillness.” In short, fasting helps us to prioritize most the things that last eternally. Fasting can also be done in supplication for an intention. Upset about no March Madness? Offer that challenge up for people who are struggling to achieve their goals. Inconvenienced by a canceled trip? Offer it up for people who have no means of escaping a life full of suffering each day. Giving alms can also take on new forms this Lent thanks to Coronavirus! Giving of our time and absence of talent to be quarantined properly will be a blessing for the sick and vulnerable. Giving of our toilet paper or other toiletries will be something we never forget, also valuable in its own way! My family still tells the stories of the 1930’s when my great-grandma had a pot of soup on for whoever needed it. We may be blessed with opportunities to do such heroic things again and have even greater stories to tell from the Spring of 2020!
What I hope we all remember as an advantage of this Coronavirus more than anything years from now is the advantage it gave us in prayer. Most churches will still host Masses, but the extra precautions will give us all each more free time, some of which perhaps we might spend praying. Sites like https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/online.html ; https://www.theprodigalfather.org/ ; www.formed.org ; and www.wordonfire.org are just the tip of the iceberg as far as resources online to help learn to pray more, differently and more frequently. Of course nothing substitutes for the prayer that is the Mass. Even if you can’t make it to Mass physically, consider the value of “going to your room, closing the door and praying in secret” by watching the Mass on your TV or online. Also, by following the outline of the Mass as to the kinds of ways you can pray, we can have a guide for what we might do in personal prayer as well. If we take the outline of the Mass as a guide, here are some great things to do in personal, individual prayer:
Ask for the strength to pray, settle into prayer, ask for forgiveness for faults, offer thanks giving for everything and be aware of what power and possibilities may await in prayer, surrender preoccupations to God (Penitential Rite, Gloria, Opening Collect Prayer).
Listen to what God is saying, read scripture til something causes pauses, wait in consideration of what God has said and may be saying, welcome the unanticipated arrival of Christ into the whole of our lives as He so often arrives in the Gospels, remember who we are because God loves us, petition God for the concerns of our hearts as a result of the prayer (Liturgy of the Word).
Trysting and trusting- uniting our lives to Christ’s as happens in the reception of the Eucharist or, to a lesser degree, through spiritual communion. Acknowledge Christ in us and ourselves in Christ, as a literal part of Him (Eucharistic Prayer/Liturgy of The Eucharist).
Recollecting what just happened in prayer, considering what do we have to do now? What do we need to go on a mission to implement and share what we have received in prayer? Get up, get going and get walking! Kind of like that first step St. Peter took onto the water… (Concluding Rites and Final Blessing).
As for community engagement in prayer or in isolation, my spiritual director shared the poem “Pandemic” with me, attached to this post, and I encourage you to read it and consider its value for yourself and for all of us.
We have the Ignatian exercises because of the strong encounter with Christ that St. Ignatius had in a cave with Christ over a 30-day period of isolation. The exercises are among the most fruitful items any saint has ever produced in the Church. People pay hundreds of dollars for the time and ability to make the 30-day retreat, its 8-day abbreviation or the daily annotated formats of the 30-day. And here in Coronavirus isolation we might have the opportunity ourselves to make of this Lent such a retreat!
We’ve been here before. We will be here again. We go with Jesus. We go as Jesus. God has led his people into and through many unknowns before! (Cue the Frozen 2 “mysterious voices?”) Moses found water in the rock after the mystery of his people’s thirst. The woman at the well found satisfaction in the Spirit of God after failing to find it in many other people and places. In this Lent and the 2020 Coronavirus response, may God lead us to safety, health and, quite possibly, some of the greatest spiritual fruit and satisfaction the Church has ever produced or seen.