Laetare Jerusalem – Tucson – (Coronavirus Captivity) March 22, 2020
“Rejoice with joy, you that have been in sorrow: that you may exult, and be filled from the breasts of your consolation.” Words taken from today’s Introit, Isaias 66:11.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
My Dear Faithful,
How ironic it is, Holy Mother Church calls us to rejoice this Sunday and yet the whole world is tempted to depression and sorrow about our current situation with this Covid-19 Coronavirus pandemic. We may be tempted to depression because of the confinement in our quarters, to anxiety about our the uncertain future, about work/school/ our doctor’s visit, or about when we’ll next be able to come to the Sacraments
This present pandemic offers us the opportunity to deepen our Lenten devotions, sacrifices, and works of charity. Those who gave up sweets, are now mostly without restaurants and left with whatever is left on the grocery shelf. Those who gave up their favorite TV show, are also now out of all new sports. Because of these extraordinary circumstances, when we joyfully accept these crosses from Our Good Lord, these crosses that we cannot pick, we can be more in conformity to the blind obedience of Christ in His Passion. Thus, because of these extraordinary circumstances, this still can be the best Lent ever for us. Laetare Sunday is the halfway point of Lent and this “Coronavirus Captivity” shouldn’t be a recess from our Lent of prayer, fasting, of almsgiving and works of charity. Rather, it’s a deepening of our practices and it is especially a great opportunity for works of charity in the family, in the current sanctuary of our domestic church.
Love by its nature desires union, and sorrow follows this separation. We can only be sorrowful when the object of our love is estranged from us. If our love is good, then when we are estranged from a good thing, our sorrow is good. But if our sorrow is caused by our separation from some other good, this sorrow is only good if it is something that is good for us to desire in God’s will. So let us do a quick examination: In this present sorrow, what is my consolation? Is it in that new house, is it in the bottom of the bottle, is in the carton of Ben and Jerry’s Ice-cream, is it illicit pleasure, or is my consolation in the cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ? Is my consolation in the Sacred Heart of Our Lord? Is your consolation in the joy of the Eucharist? Like a good doctor who doesn’t just treat symptoms but goes to the root of the problem, let us open our hearts to the Divine Doctor of our souls. Don’t just put a band-aid over our depression or anxiety, bottling it up, delaying our cure. Rather, let us expose the wound of our sorrow to Our Lord Jesus Christ so that He can heal our sorrow and give you true and perfect joy.
Our time in confinement should recall the Babylonian Captivity that we commemorate in Lent and we began on Septuagesima Sunday. For 70 years the Jews were exiled from Jerusalem and sent to the pagan city of Babylon. They were exiled from their Temple, their greatest consolation. God punished them because of their ignoring the calls of the prophets to repentance. They ignored and continued in adoring false gods. So God used the Babylonian Captivity to stir up their repentance and bring them once purified to again offer up to God praise and worship in truth and in spirit. We are currently in the “Coronavirus Captivity” and because of this captivity, when we’re without our spiritual goods, they can now we better appreciate their value. We are separated from the Jerusalem of the Sacrifice of the Mass, we can only view it from the internet. We are separated from the greatest consolation that a Catholic can have, uniting themselves Sacramentally in receiving their divine food in the Eucharist. But we hear in today’s Introit: “Rejoice with joy you that have been in sorrow; that you may exult, and be filled from the breasts of your consolation.” This sorrow, this longing for Christ is a sign of good spiritual health. But Christ never leaves us orphans, even in this “Coronavirus Captivity.”
Like the “Babylonian Captivity” this current pandemic is permitted by God as a scourge from sin. In the beginning, in the Garden of Eden, there was no sin and thus no sickness, but with sin came sickness and death. The death of our bodies reflected the death of the soul brought about by sin, not by God. This present pandemic was also brought on by sin; by the rejection of our society of the true Catholic Faith, of rejecting God from our government and its laws, of rejecting God from our decisions in the name of the false religion of “choice”, and of rejecting God from our gender being made in the image and likeness of God. This “Coronavirus Captivity” is God’s call to repentance. Just 4 weeks ago, we heard on Ash Wednesday as were marked with ashes: “Remember O man that thou art dust and unto dust thou shall return.” If we are in sin, let us heed God’s call to repentance today: let us repent by making a good Sacramental Confession, which are still available here at St. Gianna Oratory each and every day. If we cannot make it to Sacramental Confession, then let us then make a Perfect Act of Contrition desiring to come when we can. Make no mistake about it, God does not positively will the coronavirus just as He does not positively will the mortal sin and death of a soul in Hell. “God is Love”and mercifully wills the salvation of all, but God is also perfectly just and we must convert, do penance, and we must turn to the New Jerusalem, which is the Catholic Church.
God doesn’t leave you an orphan, though you cannot Sacramentally receive the Eucharist at Mass, unite your “Captivity” to a greater desire for the Eucharist. At this present time, when we cannot attend a public Mass, we are encouraged to make a “Spiritual Communion.” In this Spiritual Communion, we make an act of each of the theological virtues. By Faith we believe that Jesus Christ is truly present Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Holy Eucharist under the appearance of simple bread and wine. We Hope to attain the eternal joys as confidence is the goodness of God who promises eternal life to those who follow the Commandments and we have hope in Our Lord who gives us His Body as a pledge of our future glory in Heaven. And most importantly, we ardently desire with charity to have greater union with God in the Eucharist as the encounter of our heart with the Sacred Heart of Our Redeemer. We believe in the Eucharist, we hope in the Eucharist as the pledge of our predestination, and we lovingly embrace our Lord spiritually when we cannot consume Him sacramentally. Through these supernatural acts of faith, hope, and charity, with the ardent desire of union with Christ in the Eucharist, our Spiritual Communion is efficacious and God truly unites our soul to His by grace. The deeper our Faith, the stronger our Hope, the more ardent our Charity, the greater our Spiritual Communion. And then, like after a Sacramental Communion, we ought to make a good and grateful thanksgiving for the grace of a Communion which unites us more intimately with God, gives us greater grace for our daily duties, helps us grow in virtue, helps us resist the devil and temptations, and helps us avoid future sin. Just as the Jews in the Babylonian Captivity had a more keen desire for the temple of Jerusalem once they were exiled, so we seek that our Spiritual Communions in this present pandemic may increase our desire to receive Our Lord and deepen our union with Him in the Eucharist and in His Church. May the sorrow of our present absence from the Sacrament of the Eucharist, be consoled in our Spiritual Communions as our Lord comes and dwells with us.
In the end of today’s Gospel where Our Lord feeds the 5000 men with five barley loaves and two fish, we read where Our Lord rejects the joy of the world: “Jesus therefore when He knew that they would come to take Him by force and make Him king, fled again into the mountain, Himself alone.” Christ didn’t come to have the joy of an earthly king - He came to bring the joy of the cross. He didn’t come to reign from a Castle, but from a cross. He didn’t come to deliver us from earthly oppression and rulers - but to deliver us from the eternal enslavement to sin. Christ didn’t come to bring us temporal joy - but eternal joy. Though not contradictory in itself, sometimes this eternal joy is at odds with a temporal joy because often temporal joy is opposed to the cross. “Blessed are they that mourn: they shall be comforted.” It is the cross that brings us true joy as it brings us to eternal life. Temporal joy is vain, it easily fades, and never satisfies us. “O Crux ave spes unica” – O Hail the cross our only hope we sing at Vespers beginning next week. It the cross that brings us true, perfect, and everlasting joy.
In this present time, we are also guided with these words from the Introit: “I rejoiced at the things that were said to me: we shall go to the house of the Lord.” Like the Babylonian Captivity, this Coronavirus Captivity will not be forever. Because of these extraordinary circumstances, God gives extraordinary graces. Unite these present difficulties and crosses with the Passion of Our Lord and pray for a conversion of our world. Let us place our joy in the Cross and in our spiritual food of the Cross, the Eucharist by our Spiritual Communions. Despite the temptation to depression or sorrow, may this still be your best Lent ever as you turn that depression to a greater desire to be with Our Lord. Through this Coronavirus Captivity, may your joy be strengthened in your spiritual communions and may the cross be your hope. * Through this Coronavirus Captivity, may we keep our eyes on our crucified Lord in the Holy Eucharist, Who alone can bring us the true joy that always satisfies, Who alone can bring us the perfect joy that never fails, and Who alone can bring us the joy that never ends.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.