Did the Church abandon her children?

With the tumultuous time we are in when we get news of number of several people infected with the Corona Virus and the news of the death of unfortunate patients day after day, we heard news of Catholic Churches around Metro Manila suspend their Sunday and daily Masses and closed their Churches. The said Masses are however either televised or streamed online via social media sites.

In my experience alone as presider of the Mass in the past days, I really feel impolite to tell people not to join in the celebration. These are the loyal and devoted people who brave to come to Church just to receive Jesus in the Eucharist, who for them and as we have taught them IS THE LIFE OF THE WORLD. I really felt bad that gates had to be closed just to prevent Mass goers from entering the Church when in the past we were begging people to attend Masses.

However, in the scenario we are in right now, we have a goal as a Church and that is the prevention of the virus to spread and God forbid it may happen to our community. This is not just the concern of our civil leaders and health workers but also the concern of the Church in the name of Christian Charity.

Did the Church abandon her children? Certainly not. Luckily we live in the time of the internet and social media where we could broadcast the Celebration of the Eucharist in order to reach the flock who has access. While we see the Masses being live streamed from our cellphone or tablet or computer screens, the Eucharist stands on its own. The sacramental grace is given to all people to whom the Masses is being offered to independent from being live streamed or being seen from our screens. No amount of distance, or walls or internet connection could prevent or match or invalidate the sacramental grace of the Eucharist.

We obtain sacramental grace and communion NOT FROM THE SCREENS FROM THE REAL THING HAPPENING RIGHT THERE AND THEN. In other words, we don’t need live streaming in order to attain that sacramental grace. Live streams are just innovative way of enhancing our spiritual communion to the celebration, of conveying the message of the daily Scriptures especially the Gospels, and have to satisfy our senses and make us to believe that we are present in the very exact celebration. This is not bad. In fact I find it ingenious and necessary for the New Evangelization. They are about the enhancing our sacramental experience.

Know also that when the Eucharist is celebrated, the whole Church celebrates it. It is the celebration of the universal Church. The spiritual communion enables us to be part of this celebration even from a distance if our minds and hearts are so focused to it. But this is not to be the excuse not to attend Mass from now on because Celebrations are about intentions. You don’t celebrate without reasons. In the Eucharist we celebrate because of the glorification of God and the sanctification of the human race. Sanctification of the human race entails coming to Mass whenever we are still able to. The threat of the pandemic makes our situation an exemption Because we don’t get to have quarantines everyday. Hopefully never again.

The prelates may dispense the obligations of the faithful to attend Masses on Sundays during the Pandemic and live streamed Masses will just have to enhance the sense of satisfaction in us but it could never replace the experience. But since this experience is an experience of love, and the fountain of love and mercy, grace overflows for all to whom the celebration is intended for.

During the afternoon Benedictions at the convent, I, as the presider would bless the assembly with the monstrance bearing the Blessed Sacrament from an elevated pedestal. It is always a solemn and a moving experience to bless using the Blessed Sacrament, Jesus himself. And I don’t only get to bless the nuns in front of me who attended but also the whole world. I am blessing the world which is covered with fear, anxiety, and depression right now from that pedestal. I hoped all the time that it would be lived streamed so people could see it and have a glimpse of it faith tells me that that sacramental act right there and then is enough to bless the world even without the rest of the world knowing or seeing it.

Communion works like the system of cellphones. We are like cellphones which obtain their signal from the cell tower. This cell tower is the Eucharist. Communion is very much like it. Even when we are from afar, we get that grace, that signal to empower us. So the answer to the question whether the Church abandoned us in time of the Corona Virus outbreak or not is obviously the latter. The priest offers the Mass for us every day even when we are only spiritually present through spiritual communion.