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Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Lent, Year
A – Laetare and Mothering Sunday (21 & 22/3/20)
This is the first time that I have ever
prepared a homily, knowing that I won’t actually deliver it at Mass. It’s a bit of a strange experience. But my plan is to continue putting together
homilies to be read from the parish webpage, or printed off together with the
parish bulletin, as a way of reaching out to the parish and all others who
wish to read these homilies, at this time when public Masses are temporarily
not taking place. In the Gospel today,
Christ says, “the night will soon be here when no one can work”, and it
sounds a bit like what is happening now, as the country “shuts down” and even
the Church in this country says that we need to spend time in isolation to
avoid the further spread of this virus.
For many of us, the cessation of public
Masses will be sorely felt, as will the “fast” from the Eucharist. Those who can, will be able to watch Masses
over the internet, streamed from various locations (unfortunately we don’t
have this facility here in the parish).
It will be possible to make a spiritual communion, asking the Lord,
present on the altar to enter into our hearts. But still, it won’t be the same as being
physically present at Mass and receiving the Lord sacramentally.
For others, who don’t regularly go to Mass,
there might be different responses.
For some, the fact that they now don’t have the option of going to
Mass even if they wanted to, might mean that they miss it more than they did
before. For others, it might be that
it doesn’t make any difference. They
never wanted to go anyway, so now that Masses have ceased, their response is
one of indifference.
The important thing at this time, though,
is that the Lord has not abandoned us, and neither has the Church. The present situation is only
temporary. In some ways, in this time
of Lent, it might seem a bit like living through Good Friday after the Death
of Christ. But it’s not. Christ is still present in the Blessed
Sacrament in our churches. Now perhaps
might be a time to re-discover the Lord’s presence there, what Pope St Paul
VI referred to as, “the living heart of each of our churches” (Credo of
the People of God, no. 26). He
continues by saying, “And it is our very sweet duty to honour and adore in
the blessed Host which our eyes see, the Incarnate Word whom they cannot see,
and who, without leaving heaven, is made present before us.”
To recognise the Lord requires a new
vision. Rather than just using our
eyes to perceive outward appearances, we need what is sometimes called the
“eyes of faith”, to see Christ present in the Blessed Sacrament.
Today’s Gospel makes a similar point: who are the ones who can truly see, and who
are those who cannot? The man born
blind encounters the Son of Man. He is
healed of his physical blindness, and then is gradually able to recognise
Christ, not just as any other man, or just as a prophet, but as the Son of
Man, God-among-us who is to be worshipped.
Meanwhile the Pharisees, who are supposed to be the ones with the sight
of faith, who claim to be followers of Moses, are not able to see who Christ
is, and reject Him and all who follow Him.
So when we enter the Church, and see the
red sanctuary light burning near the tabernacle, or see the Host exposed in
the monstrance, do we see just another ordinary ecclesiastical object, one
among many, just like we might see a candlestick, an altar cloth, a carpet,
or do we “see” the living God? Do we
respond like the Pharisees, who rejected Christ as a liar, a false prophet
and a sinner, or do we respond like the man born blind, who on seeing Him,
worshipped Him?
The reality of the Blessed Sacrament is not
an act of self-deception. It is not
just “in the mind”. It is reality, as
real as everything else around you. If
someone were not to believe that a wall was hard, and ran towards it, reality
would catch up fairly soon! Just
because someone else might not believe that the Blessed Sacrament is truly
Jesus present among us, disguised under the appearance of bread, it doesn’t
mean that He isn’t there. Hence why
the Blessed Sacrament deserves special respect, and isn’t treated like any
ordinary object.
But the importance for us now, at this time
of worldwide pandemic, is to know that Christ is here with us, now. He has not abandoned us. As He said in the very last line of St
Matthew’s Gospel, “And know that I am with you always; yes to the end of
time” (Matt 28:20).
Before I end, just one final thing: on Sunday 29th March, England
will be re-dedicated to Mary as her dowry, as her special property, and as
part of the lead-up to this, we are asked to pray a special triduum (three
days) of prayer. You will find on this
website and also printed off in church, a Litany of the Saints and Martyrs
of England. Let’s join together
and pray this litany on Thursday 26th, Friday 27th and
Saturday 28th March. I will
make the re-dedication prayers available for Sunday (also available at
www.behold2020.com), which we can then all pray together in our homes, asking
for the help of Our Lady and the saints of this country at this difficult
time.
God bless,
Fr
Michael
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