The Church draws her life from the Eucharist.
Cardinal Collins hosted a webinar this week for all the
priests of the Archdiocese of Toronto. The bottom line is that we do not know
when the current lockdown will end or how we can begin to reopen our Churches.
We need to restore our public worship. I am hoping that we can begin soon to celebrate
Mass again, even if we must limit the number of worshipers and maintain social
distancing.
Cardinal Collins has always emphasized that the reason for
the current shutdown is to protect the health and the lives of those who are most
at risk in our parishes. As much as we want to get back to regular Sunday
worship, we need to do so in a responsible way. It seems that the measures
taken so far have done what was intended to ‘flatten the curve.” As our society’s
capacity for testing improves and as we develop better medical treatments, we will
be more confident in opening up our businesses and our churches.
This in no way undervalues the importance of the Sacraments.
The early Christian martyrs, when they were arrested for gathering on the Lord’s
Day, said “We cannot live without the Eucharist.” St. John Vianney, the patron
saint of parish priests, grew up in revolutionary France at a time when all Christian
worship was illegal and all the churches were boarded up. Priests went about in
disguise to evade arrest. It was a rare event when the young Vianney could attended
a secret Mass in a barn with lookouts posted to warn of the approach of the
authorities. In many parts of the world, even today, that is still the case.
In the encyclical ‘Ecclesia de Eucharistia,’ Pope John Paul
II said, “The Church draws her life from the Eucharist. It is the most precious
possession which the Church can have in her journey through history. She has
received the Eucharist from Christ her Lord not as one gift, however precious, among
so many others, but as the gift ‘par excellence,’ for it is the gift of
himself, of his person in his sacred humanity, as well as the gift of his
saving work. Nor does it remain confined to the past, since all that Christ is —
all that he did and suffered for all men — participates in the divine eternity,
and so transcends all times. When the Church celebrates the Eucharist, the
memorial of her Lord's death and resurrection, this central event of salvation
becomes really present and the work of our redemption is carried out.”
We recognize the immense tragedy of not being able to celebrate
the Eucharist. But this is not out of fear of persecution, but rather out of a
genuine concern for the most vulnerable among us. For the time being, while the
lockdown continues, we should continue to do all that we can to keep the flame of
faith alive within our homes, the ‘domestic church.’ We should make use of the many
resources available to us on-line, including live-streams of the Mass. Above
all, let us keep praying for one another and for an end to this pandemic.
