Missive

     I remember seeing a movie once which began with two elderly people, a man and a woman, sitting in a nice garden spot; and the man was introducing a young family to the woman, who expressed her happiness at meeting them and then excused herself so that the man could visit with his family.  When she was out of earshot the family began asking the man why he stayed in a nursing home when there was no medical reason for him to be there.  He simply said: “This is where my wife is.”  The woman was his wife and their mother and was suffering from a form of dementia!  Imagine that.  He was there because that is where is wife was, even if she wasn’t conscious of being his wife, much less knowing who he was most of the time.  I relate this episode because it reminds me of why we come to church.  We come to church, and especially to holy Mass because that is where God is!

     Last weekend I forgot to mention the 7:30 pm Mass for the Feast of the Assumption and I was immediately asked about it after Mass by folks who were planning on attending that Mass and thought I had cancelled it or something.  How wonderful!  People WANTING to be at Mass even if, technically, it isn’t a obligation this year because of its falling on Saturday.

     I have heard some people talking about NOT being at Sunday Mass, not because they are particularly worried about the corona virus, but because the bishop has set aside the obligation for attending at this time.  Some of these people are going out to dinner, going to various family gatherings, and other such things, but they don’t go to Mass because there’s no obligation attached to it.

     Brothers and sisters, I hope that all will take the graces given at Confirmation and use them well to give witness to our faith, which is another way of saying “giving witness to our love for God”.  The obligation is generally there to assist us in understanding how grave the obligation to nurture this relationship is; but this obligation should transform itself over time from an act of justice (obligation) to an act of self-sacrifice (LOVE).

     Take this to prayer.  Understand your own motive for coming to Mass.  Then, give witness to that motive of LOVE to all: family, friends, neighbors, Catholics and non-Catholics alike.

     “Who will separate us from the love of Christ?  Trial, or distress, or persecutions, or hunger, or nakedness, or danger, or the sword?  Yet in all this we are more than conquerors because of Him Who has loved us.”  (Romans 8:35, 37)