Viewpoint: On staying home in the pandemic

My mother was house bound for about ten years. And in that time she only heard Mass twice, when a priest friend came to visit and celebrated Mass for her in her room. She read the daily gospel and occasionally was brought Holy Communion. In the past when we took Holy Communion to the sick straight from Mass we tried to make links with the praying parish community. Suddenly, the sick and housebound can now follow that Mass and feel a greater link with the parish through the regular streaming.

I now have the opportunity of selecting from hundreds of Masses at a time of my choosing, from the comfort of my own house. At the beginning of the pandemic my sister told me she was going to attend daily Mass online and I have tried to keep that up too. I have been to Mass in many places, and my sense of being church has been enhanced. We are all church. Together we hear the same words spoken wherever we are, although the quality of the homily varies. I feel a part of that celebration even sitting at my desk with a cup of coffee.

Hearing the gospel, the same gospel in a different place encourages me to understand that it is calling each one of us wherever we are to be fully Christian. We may not be the fishermen called to evangelise the gentiles, but we are called to live our lives in a way that can be seen as evangelising.

As we remain in our homes, keeping away from others it seems hard to not have the contacts we yearn for. But we may be the fishermen who stayed behind. No one tells us that they didn't follow Jesus too, someone had to care for the community keeping them fed. Also, the elderly or infirm surely they chose to follow him, think of Peter's mother-in-law. This pandemic is making me ponder hard on the role of the person at home. We may not be called to be the active person in the community. This pandemic is teaching me about my role staying at home, hearing the gospel and being fully a part of our Church and indeed of the parish. And taking part in the Mass I see on my computer links me to the parish or any parish, I can make the responses, I can sing. I feel truly present. And I am being responsible, by being one less person leaving their house with all the risks that can bring at this time.

I have attended Mass daily rather than weekly during this pandemic. My appreciation of the Word has grown. My own relationship with Christ - learning to be rather than worrying about the doing - has grown. I miss the community, but until normality returns fully that cannot be satisfied.

In the future with fewer priests, we will have to travel further to find Mass, and there may be the consequential decrease in numbers attending. And in winter when the roads are icy or dangerous we can avoid the risk, stay at home and go to Mass online.

Streaming Masses can also be seen as an evangelising tool. Enquirers can attend Mass, without having to take the risk of walking over the physical threshold of a church until they are ready. There are so many more opportunities offered to each one of us.

We cannot know what lies ahead. But I suspect parish life will change. I sense that I will go back to Sunday Mass in the parish when it is safe, but daily Mass will continue online for me. The internet is a wonderful gift to us at this time.