Real Life Disciples: Finding Christ in the crisis

In the past couple of months, I have found myself in numerous conversations that have given me some pause. I decided to write my column this month as a general response to the many I have talked to, assuming that if there have been a dozen or so people who feel this way, and who have gone out of their way to talk with me, surely there are many more.

The theme of these conversations has been a deep sense of hurt, some have even used the word betrayal, over the closing of our Church’s this past spring in response to the COVID pandemic. I have spent much time talking through this with many, and though the explanations and specific reasons varied from person to person, the overall conversation was remarkably similar: they were stunned and shaken by the temporary loss of public worship and access to the sacraments. In all these conversations I believe I was able to offer some unique insights that helped them and so I offer those thoughts here in hopes it will help others as well.

First, as one of the people who contributed to this decision in a small way, I would like to convey my condolences to you for the suffering this may have caused. If you are one of the people who has really struggled with this, and are finding it hard to let go, I think it is a bit like a grieving experience, so “condolences” seems an appropriate expression: an expression of sympathy to someone who is experiencing pain arising from death, deep mental anguish or misfortune. I am sorry for your pain.

Yet, I would encourage you – I have never experienced pain in my life that hasn’t led to growth in faith and character when I turned it over to the Lord. If you are still struggling, still angry, still hurt, would you consider giving that over to Jesus? I truly believe he desires to meet you in a unique way in your pain.

Like I said earlier, I was not the one who had to make such a decision, that heavy burden was left to Archbishop Coakley. But, I was one of the people sitting around the table as that decision was being made. In defense of our Archbishop, and the rest of our bishops for that matter, in my estimation there was no other decision that could have been made at that time.

At that time, early in the pandemic, we were being told that millions of people were possibly going to die (I believe the early projection was four million people in the United States), and that the only way to prevent further loss of life was to take aggressive action. We also were only weeks into this pandemic and had limited information even from other countries who were further ahead of us with the outbreak. For the sake of the common good, and to save lives, the only clear decision was to do what was being asked of us by the government, the CDC and other health experts, which is why every diocese in the country made the same decision.

Just hearing that backdrop to the decision was helpful to everyone I talked to. Most were just not aware of all those factors. Many were looking back with the illumination of all the new information we currently have, and criticizing a decision made all the way back in March, which is not fair.

Also, with pain and suffering often comes an overemphasis on the individual person, but the challenge with this decision was that the whole basis for it was the common good of all the lay faithful, not any one person, and not even any one age demographic. The common good is always a principle aim in the Church’s decision-making process. Given how little we knew about the virus early on, the decision was both prudent and consistent with that common good.

This pandemic has greatly affected the life of our Church: The suspension of Masses, the disruption of parish life, many parishes throughout the archdiocese still have not opened up their RE classes. The reality is that many feel disconnected from Christ, and from the Church. As a Catholic, you may find yourself wrestling with all these ramifications and trying to figure out where God is in the midst of this time of crisis.

In the midst of these many conversations and praying for the people I have been talking with, I came across a small book that does a pretty amazing job of addressing the situation. Our Sunday Visitor has published a short and quick read, “Finding Christ in the Crisis: What the Pandemic Can Teach Us,” by Fr. Harrison Ayre and Michael Heinlein.

The book addresses the pain that many have experienced, but quickly moves to finding Christ in the midst of that pain and shedding light on what God might be saying to us in this unique time in history, both in the Church and in the world.

This is from the online description: “Through scriptural interpretation and examination of particular realities of the faith, we can realize that, while we may at times be restricted in our access to the sacraments and even to pastoral leadership, the effects of this pandemic are by no means a defeat. Instead, as men and women of faith, we have an opportunity to rediscover the heart of our Catholic identity and to find God in the midst of the storm.”

This column has as its primary focus lived discipleship – what living out our call to be disciples really looks like in the ordinary or our everyday lives. I can’t think of a better challenge to discipleship and complete trust in God than what we have gone through this past year. There can be a human tendency to try to find someone or something to blame for hardship and suffering.

We feel so hurt and angry, we want to find some target to lash out at with that energy. The heart of a disciple, though, first turns that energy to Jesus and asks him to sort out the pain and anger and bring peace.

The immense challenges of this past year are actually a huge opportunity. “Finding Christ in the Crisis” is very helpful in bringing that reality to light. I would highly encourage it for those of you who resonate with the content of this column. You can find more information about the book on the Our Sunday Visitor website at orderosv.com.