“May theskdjhfh of hope fill you with all joy and peace in your faith, so that in the power of the Holy Spirit you may be rich in hope.” – Romans 15:13
For those of you who are baseball fans, during this time of the year we have the World Series. Now many of you are familiar with how when a pitcher is struggling, he’s walking batters, giving up hits and even homeruns, the manager will walk out of the dugout and remove him from the game. But every now and then, there is a starting pitcher who is doing well, having to work his way out of a little bit of trouble, but overall, he’s getting through, he’s doing fine. But every once in a while the manager will come out and pull him out of the game, and there he goes to the dugout a bit upset and convinced that he didn’t have to be pulled, that he could have still hung in there and continued with the game. Well, that’s pretty much how it feels to have to face the news from Archbishop Wester about us having to cancel public Masses until further notice. We were doing well, especially here at the Aquinas Newman Center, working our way through the troubles that we’ve all had to face during this year of the pandemic, but Mass attendance was steady, confessions were up to levels that I normally see during Lent, babies were getting baptized and couples were getting married and there were no outbreaks of the virus, praised be to God. But as your pastor, I’m only the starting pitcher. I’m not the manager, the Archbishop is, and he’s having us, since it’s not just me, we are all in this together, go sit back on the bench, so to speak. Now on one hand you could say that game still goes on, it’s just that we are not out in the playing field. From a certain aspect that is true, as prayers will still be offered, novenas and devotions will still be said and the Mass will still be given, just without all of you being here. But from anther perspective, we’re supposed to be out in the field! As Catholic Christians, we are not made to be sitting on the bench, though we can still be supportive from there, but to be out in the field, or in other words in the full worship of our Lord that is the Mass so that we can then bring the fullness of His Real Presence to the rest of the world. So like a pitcher who has been pulled from the game while he still had his stuff, while things might have been a bit difficult, but nothing that we couldn’t handle, yes, many of us are pretty upset, so here are two things to keep in mind because being taken out of the game so to speak, stings quite badly this time. First, it’s still true, God always blesses obedience. So let’s do our part to ride out this latest suspension knowing that God has not abandoned us. The Archbishop is in a tough position, so we have to pray that he will continue to fully seek the Holy Spirit in leading us forward. But that being said, here is the second thing that we need to do. Pray hard that the pandemic will come to an end, but also, don’t be silent anymore and just take it, because we don’t have to take it anymore, you let everyone know so that we all can be praying on the same page: tell others to stop thinking that making a spiritual communion from home is the same as receiving full Communion with our Lord Jesus at Mass, because it is not. Let us stop pretending that it’s just as good to get everyone together on Zoom as it would be if we were all in person, because it is not. Let us stop thinking that well, if I just make a good Act of Contrition that everything will be cool, when our very souls are screaming at us that we are in some serious sin and that we need to go to confession. Ok, I get it, there’s a pandemic, we have to be cautious, we have to be prudent, and some people have no choice, some people are sick, some are compromised, but for everyone to be paralyzed in fear? No way. We’re Catholics for crying out loud, we’re not afraid of anything! So no, we don’t go forward with purely blind ambition, we have to be smart about how to stay safe and healthy, but we are not called by Jesus to sit on the bench, even though we might have to do so for a brief time; we are called to be in the game, and that means we are called to receive the fullness of the Sacraments. Let us do everything we can through prayer, fasting and sacrifice to get things back to where they belong.
So here is the lineup for the time being at the Aquinas Newman Center: Masses will be recorded every day with Monday, Wednesday and Friday recordings at 7:00am and then uploaded between 7:30 and 8:00. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, Masses will be live streamed and recorded at 5:15pm as well as being live streamed and recorded on Saturdays at 8:30am and Sundays at 9:00am.
Confessions will be heard at 7:30am on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and from 2:00 to 4:00pm on Saturdays. And we will have a Holy Hour with Eucharistic adoration and benediction from 5 to 6pm on Monday nights.
May God bless you all and stay loose! God willing we can get back in the game very shortly.