“Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me,so that they may be one just as we are one.”
Jesus
No one ever prayed more for us that Jesus. God Himself. Think about that. The One who created us, the One Who can do anything, has prayed for us, more than anyone. That is truly amazing and unimaginable, considering there is a lot of praying going on in the world right now. An awful lot of praying.
What it must have been like to feel that oneness with God, the oneness that Jesus had with God the Father. I wish I had a fraction – just a minute fraction – of that with Jesus right now. Sometimes I think I do. But other times I’m not so sure.
I have really struggled with this stay-at-home order. Really struggled. I did not realize how much I truly needed other people, how much I needed community, and this is coming from a known introvert.
So many people have said to embrace this time. Embrace the quiet and simple time and strengthen your relationship with Christ. Embrace the struggle. I myself wrote this early on in this quarantine. But it is not good for man to be alone. Idle hands are the devil’s playground.
Believe me – I’m thankful. I’m thankful I got my garage cleaned out and organized. I’m thankful the house is in order. I’m thankful for the technology that allows me to work remotely and allows our parish to livestream Mass and evening prayers and rosaries.
And I’m most thankful that my family, myself, and those around me are healthy.
But we need community. We need in-person community, where even if it is through a facemask, some plexiglass, or from a distance of 6 feet or more – we still need to feel the presence of others. It is not the same through a screen.
And perhaps this is one thing we will learn from this. One thing of many, hopefully. Paul spread the Word of Christ, and evangelized in His Name, with others, touching them, being there, before them. God came to us, in the Name of Jesus, to live with us, to be one of us, to touch us, to heal us. And to save us.
He couldn’t do that from afar. No, He had to come and be one of us.
God had all the tools, but it was only through His Real Presence and being one of us that He could truly save us.
Jesus is One with God, but yet He came to be one with us. And He prayed for us, more than anyone, and He is doing so today – praying with His Father, in His Name that we learn from this and grow from this.
But He didn’t do it through a livestream. And so while technology is all and good, while being able to do things remotely and virtually is great, perhaps we will realize that technology is just a tool, a tool that we use when we need it, to make the job easier. But it is not the end all be all. It is not a replacement for community.
Perhaps this situation will help us to yearn for human contact, for working together with our coworkers, feeding on their energy, attending a Mass and feeling the power of prayer, and the Real Presence of Christ before us, and within us as we become One with Him in the Blessed Sacrament.
I yearn for this. I need this and I know all of you do as well. We are living in a new normal. The world will never be what it was, but perhaps that’s not a bad thing in this case. Perhaps that’s not a bad thing because we are not of the world – we are of Him. Good things come from change. Good things come from suffering.
Good things come… In His Name…
