By now many, if not all of you have heard that the Archbishop has suspended all regularly scheduled public celebrations of the Mass until further notice due to the coronavirus outbreak. I can already feel the weight of sorrow that many of you are experiencing in dealing with this reality. Indeed, it is a great sorrow for me as well not to be able to publicly celebrate the Mass with you. Despite the pain, I do believe that the Archbishop made the right decision.
I see it as a great act of charity that all of us are being invited to embrace during this Lenten season as we seek to slow the spread of this coronavirus. We are foregoing something which we truly love not only to reduce the chance of us or others contracting the virus but also to increase the probability that proper medical care can be given to those that do. For, if we don’t take serious action on our part to help reduce the rate at which this virus spreads, health experts tell us that the medical care facilities will be overloaded and unable to treat all who need it as has already happened in Italy. I ask you to join me in this great work of charity to take seriously and implement in to our daily lives the precautions and practices that the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) and the Center for Disease Control (CDC) are recommending at this time: see
https://www.health.state.mn.us/diseases/coronavirus/index.html;
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html; or
https://www.archspm.org/covid19 On the recent Solemnity of St. Joseph, Patron of the Universal Church, I began my day by praying the rosary while looking at a crucifix. It came to me that as we endure these days away from our Lord’s presence in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, we, the Body of the Christ, are united now in a special way with our Lord on the cross. We join Him in the cry He made to His heavenly Father from the cross, “My God, My God, why have you abandoned me?” (Ps 22). Yet, if like Jesus, we
choosein humility to remain on the cross out of love for others, it will lead to new depths in our spiritual life we did not know could exist for us. We will come to discover that our Lord, in fact, never abandoned us.
Someone recently said to me, “Father, the Mass is our greatest protection against this virus…” I couldn’t agree more. Although we’re not able to publicly celebrate the Mass for some time, be assured that everyday Fr. Sandquist and I will be offering the Holy Mass for you and all your intentions. The Mass continues! Therefore, the saving effects of our Lord’s suffering, death, and resurrection will still be applied to your life. Have confidence in this! I encourage you to make a spiritual communion everyday by reverently reciting this prayer or something similar:
My Jesus, I believe that you are present in the most holy Eucharist. I love you above all things, and I desire to receive you into my soul. Since I cannot at this moment receive you sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. I embrace you as if you were already there and unite myself wholly to you. Never permit me to be separated from you. Amen. In addition, as our ‘hunger pains’ grow for the Lord’s sacramental presence, I encourage you to make your prayer life more fervent. This is for sure a wonderful time to be reading scripture (especially the Gospels), reading spiritual books, and making more time for the needs of others… I can’t insist enough on praying to our Blessed Virgin Mary during this time. She is always our protectress, and she loves us more than we can imagine.
I would particularly encourage praying the rosary for the end of this virus outbreak.
I know so many of us are experiencing a good deal of stress, feeling out of control, as so many aspects of our lives (employment, recreation, social life, church…) are disrupted. I empathize with you. Yet, as I wrote in last weekend’s bulletin article, we must grab ahold of our Lord’s hand who will see us through this storm. Remember how Jesus immediately reached out His hand to save Peter who was sinking into the stormy waters (Mt 14:31). Remember the words the Lord spoke while the Apostles were terrified of dying as their boat was sinking in the midst of the storm: “Be still!” (Mk 4:39). Jesus is master of all things, both natural and spiritual realities.
We pray, then, for deeper faith in these days of uncertainty. Join me in this prayer every day and soon enough we will be celebrating together again around the altar, gazing on Him whom we love in the Holy Eucharist.