The Israelites knew what it was like to wander in the desert…Like them we have allowed ourselves to become complacent. We are so used to having Mass and Communion on demand that we fail to even recognise the reality that we consume. We are so angered that our churches have been closed because we have the right to receive Communion.
The truth is, that we don’t exactly. Have the right, I mean. It’s not like God is the head of a democracy that drew up and signed a universal charter of rights to which Catholics are entitled.
Like the Israelites before us we have been disobedient. We have disregarded and disrespected God, taken for granted His mercy, and our access to the Sacraments. We may not have erected a tangible golden calf but there are plenty of secular altars and ideologies that bear a strange resemblance to that idolatrous bovine.
We assumed that we would always have the ability to receive Communion and yet, the first weekend has passed in which my own family had to make do with the aesthetically less sufficient spiritual Communion. Confession, thankfully, we managed that last week thanks to the generosity of a priest who sat outside in our garden, our chairs situated the prescribed ‘social’ distance apart.
Now, however, Easter looms and it is hard not to look with despair upon a celebration of that incredible week in the church’s liturgical calendar, from Palm Sunday right through until Easter Sunday, where normally we would spend a good deal of our time at our Churches attending Masses (I usually attempt the Chrism Mass that week too because I find it such a tangible liturgical link between the Last Supper and our clergy), blessing palms, nursing tired children through Holy Thursday and the following vigil at the altar of repose, attending stations of the cross, grieving through Our Lord’s Passion, attending confession and then celebrating the joy of the Risen Jesus!
This year the joy of Easter will not feel complete.
I was able to restrain my tears this past week when we prayed our spiritual Communion at home, and kept those emotions of isolation and desolation at bay, but for how long can we each bear this forced divorce from He that died and rose for us?
I know not. I am a mere mortal, a sinner who is currently being chastised, exiled from the court of Christ the King.
Perhaps at some point we will feel as though we can’t bear it, that life is too bleak and hopeless without His Presence. Then, I think, we will be close to re-establishing His rightful place in our lives, families, homes, churches and communities. Then we will have been divested of our complacency, our moral certitude that we know better than the Church’s Fathers, our wilful disobedience and neglect of His commands and precepts.
Then we will understand how far we have fallen from where we should be, what our priorities must be, and see clearly the only way forward. Then we will understand that we must die to self, and rid ourselves of all that is contrary to His Infinite Goodness, so that, on that truly joyous day when our churches reopen, public masses are once again offered and we receive Our Lord in Communion, He might truly be welcome in the very depths of our souls. Welcome and comfortable, revered and appreciated.
At last, we will shake the desert sand from our sandals, dust ourselves off and come forward bearing the title of a ‘good and faithful servant’.
But to get to that desired end we must traverse the desert plains between. We must accept our chastisement without offering a word in our defence, humble and contrite we must willingly shoulder the punishment, the consequences and reparation for our sins. And, given the weight of the discipline given us by our Just and Merciful God, our sins are very grave indeed.
Sisters, now is the time to take up our ranks in the Church militant. Now is the time to put into effect those spiritual habits we have so long intended to implement. Now is the time to call on the help of Our Lady, whose intercession has resulted in many victories over the ages (Lepanto and Guadalupe are just two that spring immediately to mind) through the daily recitation of the Rosary. Start, and end, your day with a Morning Offering and an Evening Examen respectively. Lent is a fabulous time to immerse yourself in the devotions of the Divine Mercy Chaplet and the Stations of the Cross. Worried about the kids? I highly recommend the Brother Francis DVD of the latter for the whole family. Or, take it outside. Make it work for you and your situation.
Yes, I too have bemoaned the difficulties of encouraging our children to pray but if they do not see us place the due emphasis of daily, regular prayer in our lives, even if your family’s style is more Lectio Divinia or praise and worship, then how do they come to understand its significance? They don’t. So make it count. Make it frequently. Make it devoutly. Just make it. No excuses.
Remember that ‘Where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I in their midst’! (Matthew 18:20) Perhaps we do not have Jesus in the Eucharist right now, but He is still present in our gatherings of prayer and faith.
We might be denied access to the Sacraments we desire but in the meantime make frequent Acts of Contrition and Spiritual Communion. Keep that flame of faith alive with as much prayer and devotion as you can. It’s hard to grow anything in the desert but it is not impossible.
For nothing is impossible for God.
Yes, this is a time of great penance and suffering. But that means that the opportunities for grace and blessings are rich and bountiful.
Hold in there Sisters. We might be in the desert, but the Promised Land awaits us. A fresh start, a new land, a home that God intends for us to inhabit, to flourish and prosper in.
So thank Him for this time of trial. Call on His Mercy. And, above all, ‘fight the good fight’ (cf. 1 Tim 6:12).
And look out, we might just be neighbours in Jericho!
Originally posted 2020-03-30 23:37:41.
Thank you for sharing this wonderful spiritual reflection. I find it truly inspiring to know that there is a group of young Australian Catholic Mums providing support for each other, and also leaven for our Church.