Normally at this time of year the color purple would be something I would be looking forward too and happy to talk about, but in this year of pandemic the color purple this week meant that our parishes throughout the Diocese and state were asked once more to close there doors to indoor worship and to move out into the relative (in a California sense) cold and wind of our late fall and early winter season.
As the news began to filter and leak out that the state would jump from the orange tier into the purple tier there was truly a sense of dread that filled my heart. Although we had been restricted to celebrating indoors with only 100 people allowed, an almost sense of normalcy had begun to fill the practice of Mass. Even with the masks, the people scattered at safe social distances from each other and the lack of joyous songs being sung was a reality, being in the building, celebrating on a consecrated altar and not hearing the noise of the street allowed, for me, the prayerful celebration of the Mass in a way that was different from our outdoor space.
It is true and I believe, where two or three are gathered, Jesus is there and I have been blessed greatly by the celebrations in the courtyard in seeing families come to hear God’s Word and receive Him, Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Eucharist and yet, it felt like a gut punch. I spent most of my fitful sleep on Monday night thinking, planning, doubting and fearing what would happen next. Maybe we would be experiencing the movie “Groundhog Day” where tomorrow doesn’t come until we figure out God’s wonderful gifts that surround us and learn to celebrate them in the midst of everything. So when I woke up Tuesday morning and it wasn’t Monday morning, I was a little grumpy…even though I really look forward too Tuesdays because they are my day off…I went to celebrate Mass and get our outdoor worship space ready once more.
What makes the Eucharist so wonderful? Why is it so beautiful to be at the Eucharist? “To be spotted at a Eucharistic meal should make people talk about us because it indicates that we are in a relationship that is scandalous in many ways. Through the act of celebration the Eucharist, we are first and foremost proclaiming an intimacy with the creator of the universe.” (p. 56, from “Living the Sacraments” by Joe Paprocki) This is ultimately what gets me out of my mopey-ness and allows me to see, even in the midst of this time, the gift of God present in the Eucharist. Jesus is with me and celebrates with me and desires to draw me into this “scandalous” relationship of knowing Him as my brother and Savior.
He is Christ the King! It is what we will celebrate this Sunday as we move into the purple of love that opens wide the doors of Advent in preparing our hearts and the world to receive the King of the Universe as the baby Jesus. This isn’t sentimental schlock but rather it is a gift of love. And this is how we are called to live our lives…encountering Jesus in the daily bread of life, just as we receive him in the Daily Bread of the Eucharist. The “Amen” of I believe is a grace of seeing the world not in the “what we don’t have” attitude of wanting but in the “blessings of presence” we do have in the gift of loving stewardship. “In each encounter we have, we can ask ourselves, “Am I offering a real presence to this person?” (p 63) This is what Jesus offers me and you. It is why nothing can separate us from the love of God. (Rm 8:35) It is why, indoors or outdoors, we come to celebrate and say AMEN.
God Bless
Fr. Mark