Notice on a local restaurant door on Mother’s Day: “We respect the many restaurants doing home deliveries: as for us, while acknowledging the enquiries from customers, we are sorry but we are not into it. We provide a dining experience, not just food….”.
This is food for thought for the Christian community in our country as we grapple with the lengthy absence of the Eucharistic celebration in our churches. Notwithstanding the proliferation of online Masses on TV and social media, ranging from the beautiful to the crass kitchen versions, the Christian community remains in Lent: a time of fasting from what it holds precious, the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.
But whereas different restaurants have come up with innovative and creative ways to reach out to their customers, can we, as a Church, say we have tried something creative to help our communities journey through this time of being “aimlessness in the desert”?
In this time whence “we are given no signs from God; no prophets are left, and none of us knows how long this will be”(Psalm 74), what have been our creative spurts of spring and Easter newness? Are online Masses the only solution we can truly offer as a Catholic clergy and community?
In many ways this pandemic has exposed a Church which at times is monolithic in its response. It is lost at times, in a way so powerfully put by Jeremiah: “Both prophet and priest have gone to a land they know not (Jer 14:18)”. Are we a lumbering mammoth or a nimble deer as we respond to this kairos moment in time? What is our response to the vibrant call of Pentecost?
As lockdown measures are eased, the temptation for priests and lay people is to rush back to the sacristies, ceremonials and ritualistic templates of before. Many yearn for the reassurance of structures, habits and traditions where we feel safely ensconced. This is more evident in times of complexity, crisis and confusion like the present moment.
But this yearning for safety is a trap. If that were to happen, the COVID-19 desert would have taught us little. The whole point of Christian transformation is not to emerge from a desert experience to continue doing what we used to do, but to forge a new identity.
While older Catholics might find comfort in watching three Masses a day on screen, how do we as a Church together discern a way forward that offers more possible expressions of liturgical celebration, communion and solidarity with the poor of the world in the light of the Word of God?
In these weeks of fasting from the Eucharist, what other possible sources of nurture have been unearthed by the Christian community in the cenacles of our homes?
In her book An Altar in the World, Barbara Brown Taylor beautifully explores how to discover altars everywhere we go and in nearly everything we do as we “learn to live with purpose, pay attention, slow down, and revere the world we live in”.
This might be scary stuff for some.
With COVID-19, the challenge starts now, even in the days when our churches are still closed, to truly find God in all things: “Behold I will make all things new” (Rev 21:5).
Fr Frankie Cini, Member of the MissionarySociety of St Paul