One could say the coronavirus has brought us to our knees… not just because it gave us more time and opportunities to pray hard but to pray for all the faithful: to pray that scientists will soon be able to develop a vaccine, to pray for the victims, to pray for families who lost their loved ones, to pray for those who are dying from the much-dreaded COVID-19, and to pray for the psychological well-being and health of everybody.
And because the pandemic has suspended customary rituals and practices, such as the blessing of palm branches or the Easter Salubong1 (and even prohibited us from celebrating Mass in public), this has led us, almost forcing us to enhance, deepen and better realize the equally important reality of the so-called little “domestic church,” i.e., the family, the smallest body of gathered believers in Christ.
Thus, to live in our rectories the reality of mutual love so that we can become a family, a Church community, often called by Saint John Paul II as “domus ecclesia,” the domestic church or the church of the home. Most of all, as the COVID-19 pandemic has torn us away from our parish community, the embrace of brothers, the meeting of glances… this has led us to be more in contact with one another in a real sense.
The cold monitors of mobile phones and computers, however precious they have been during these weeks of lockdown, do not bring the living flesh of the people God has entrusted to us. It is as if, suddenly, we all became monks (i.e., from the Greek, “lonely, solitary”), while celibacy is based on nuptial dynamics, in an intimate relationship with the community.
These days, there is much talk about the “new normal,” that is, a change in lifestyle, a new way of doing things. Even when lockdown restrictions will be finally loosened, we will not completely go back to normal. Why? Because an “existential earthquake” occurred, and has shaken up and moved us towards an epochal change. In truth, we don’t know if in the coming new pastoral year we will have the same number of people, youths and adults, in our catechism classes and formation programs.
The real challenge for us pastors of God’s flock, as Pope Francis says, is to devise new ways of being with the people at this time: “go before his people, pointing the way and keeping their hope vibrant” (…) “be in their midst with his unassuming and merciful presence” (…) “walk after them, helping those who lag behind” and – above all – allowing the flock to strike out on new paths” (cf. Evangelii Gaudium 31).
Certainly, the physical presence of the Church is more important now than ever. These past few months, tech-savvy pastors have resorted to streaming online Masses. Moreover, we have also seen priests who even risked their lives to bring material and spiritual relief to the people. Some have gone around their parishes, blessing the people with the Blessed Sacrament, a practice of popes during plagues that ravaged Europe in past centuries. Others are even wearing a hazmat (hazardous material) suit to minister to different areas of their community. Thus, we see in the example of these priests that, especially in these trying times, we Christians can engage in ways we hadn’t considered before…
Fr. Paolo Gentili with Fr. Am Mijares
1 A traditional Filipino devotion that reenacts what Christian tradition perceives as the Virgin Mary’s meeting with the resurrected Christ
