It is difficult to describe what a relief it was to see our congregation again when public Masses resumed at the beginning of July. Arriving at the Oratory to assist at Holy Mass for the first time since March to find the church swathed in red tape and what the “hi vis” jacket brigade love to call “signage”, parishioners might have been forgiven for assuming that they had stumbled in on a crime scene. However, not even the arrows enforcing one-way systems, nor the reek of disinfectant, nor even the bossy printed leaflets about what to do and what not to do, could alloy the happiness that the fathers experienced in seeing so many familiar faces, and some new ones, after months of lockdown and separation. It had been strange beyond words to celebrate Holy Mass, and even the Holy Week and Easter ceremonies, in our great church with the doors locked and surrounded by a vast sea of empty seats. As Catholics we are members of the Mystical Body of Christ. The supernatural life that animates this Body might, in itself, be invisible but this supernatural and invisible reality unites us into a single living organism which is a very visible expression of the incarnational nature of our holy religion. We need to be together on Sundays. Welcome back.
One of the strictures that the fathers have imposed on themselves in order to allow for the deep cleansing of the church between Masses is brevity in preaching. It was just as well, then, that the Gospel appointed for our first Sunday back together really spoke for itself: “Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy burdened, and I will refresh you” (Mtt 11.28). Long months of imprisonment and isolation have brought considerable burdens to a large part of the population – burdens of anxiety, loneliness, in some cases sickness and bereavement, along with grave concerns about livelihoods and impending poverty. Whatever burdens press us down in the way of apprehension or grief, our Lord opens wide His arms and invites us to share them with Him. He assures us that we are not alone. He carries with us whatever burdens we bring to Him and promises never to abandon us.
There is no better occasion to share these burdens with our Lord than in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. During the Offertory, we are invited to offer up with the bread and the wine all of our sacrifices and sorrows, our hopes and joys – in fact everything we have and everything we are – on the paten and in the chalice, so that when the words of Consecration are spoken, we are truly united with His Sacrifice on Calvary. He is able supernaturally to make use of whatever we bring Him, for our own sanctification and for the building up of His Kingdom on earth. In the Sacrament of Penance, meanwhile, we open the doors of our hearts to Him so that He is able to relieve us of all burdens of guilt and sin, in order that we may look forward to receiving Him in Holy Communion with the assurance that our souls have been well and truly disinfected and restored to the pristine wholeness which we received in Baptism.
Like most things that happen today, the Coronavirus has proven to be a force for division in an already fragmented society. While many seem delighted for the powers and principalities of this world to monitor and direct each and every aspect of their lives, others find the intrusions of the ever-expanding reach of the nanny state objectionable on principle. Newspeak phrases like “social distancing” and “contact tracing” conjure up visions of Orwellian dystopias and exude the whiff of sulphur. Worst of all is “modelling best practice”, pronounced with such cloying relish by the bureaucratic martinets who tend to run everything at management level these days. Looking at the scrupulous precautions that the Oratory fathers are currently taking in the church in the face of Coronavirus, some of our more sceptical parishioners have asked rather cheekily if we have swallowed the latest incarnation of Project Fear hook line and sinker. A word of explanation is due. Whether we truly believe that face masks etc. are really useful, one of our major concerns is to make those who come to the Oratory feel as safe as possible in the current strange climate in which the advice of “experts” often seems to be so contradictory and changeable. A good number of the faithful who worship with us have spent months hermetically sealed in at home being bombarded by the media with terrifying prognoses of apocalyptic scenarios unfolding on the streets around them. Coming to Mass will be the first time that some will have dared to venture out, and in this highly-charged atmosphere we should all of us show solicitude and thoughtfulness towards those who feel nervous and even fearful about coming to church. For this reason, if for no other, we ask everyone to take the tedious instructions seriously and just be glad that we have been allowed to unlock the doors at all.
The last time the government of this realm took away our freedom to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass it took three centuries for it to be restored. We can be grateful that this recent hiatus lasted just three and a half months. Let us implore our Blessed Lady Assumed into Heaven to intercede for us so that the current circumstances will soon change, in order that we can deposit all the red tape, “signage”, and the bossy printed instructions, in the dustbin where they belong.
Father Julian Large