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"What good is a physical life if you can’t save your soul? The only way to salvation is to receive Our Lord substantially in the Sacraments."
In a guest post, Sharon Crooks of Palmerston North writes:
"I believe that whilst we are to do our part to ensure we
keep our distance from everyone, the bigger problem is that the New Zealand Conference of Catholic Bishops (NZCBC) acted in
haste to restrict Catholics from the Mass, disregarding Canon Law that seems to
state they cannot cancel a Mass.
"I hear what the bishops are saying regarding the seriousness
re contagion and our need to consider more than ourselves to avoid the loss of
more innocent lives and overwhelm health systems.
"But what good is a physical
life if you can’t save your soul? The only way to salvation is to receive
Our Lord substantially in the Sacraments.
"I’m not entirely sure what the answer is, but more solutions
need investigation. What are the implications for allowing the Magisterium
(Church Law) to be abandoned, denied, etc, as it has been?
"When will the Church be restored to union with the Magisterium?
"How will we avoid similar disobedience in future? Or will secular laws
gradually more and more dominate what we Catholics are permitted to do and when
we can do it? In what circumstances is a perceived common good better
than obedience to the Magisterium, and hence Canon Law?
"Jesus placed His Body before the lepers and healed them, and
those with fevers etc, and His apostles did likewise! I'm not sure how one
compares this with Covid-19 but Jesus gives us no examples of abandoning His
flock. Was He just unscientific or was He telling us
something?
"The bishops have figuratively crucified Our Lord, by
breaking Canon Law and withholding reception of Holy Communion on the tongue.
And if that weren't bad enough, they have now as good as put Him in 'lock down'
too, rolling the proverbial stone in front of the tomb.
"Spiritual Communion is great but much more is needed. Surely it would be to everyone's advantage to keep Adoration going, 24/7 where
possible and have at least a few devout, faithful souls remain with the
Lord.
"Many simply would stay away. . . (and some rightfully so!),
but the small group who are able and happy to go, being prepared to lose life
and limb knowing it is far more preferable to die in the pew than let the
sanctuary 'Light' go out, should be encouraged back into their churches.
"We must not sink into the despair and agony of Holy Saturday.”
Re “Surely it would be to everyone’s advantage to keep Adoration going 24/7…” I made that request for Adoration to happen for even just one hour on the Feast of the Annunciation, but it was denied by the Palmerston North diocese, without explanation, well BEFORE lock-down on that important, historical Catholic day when the Blessed Mother elected to be the Mother of God.
ReplyDeleteI trust He will allow us to make reparation by giving us many more future opportunities to spend one hour with Him.
Helen Carver says:
ReplyDeleteFor heaven's sake this is serious people will die if we do not follow the recommendations of the experts
We don’t want people to die unnecessarily, but we need to be practical too, spiritually, medically, socially and economically. This could go on for months or years, until there is a vaccine, or until the community develops some level of immunity. We have never had effective vaccines for common cold and flu, and the Spanish flu of 1918 disappeared when herd immunity was achieved (no vaccine and 9,000 NZ’ers dead).
ReplyDeleteOnce we have got over the initial anxiety, which I appreciate is currently great, we may be able to get our Mass back. If proper procedures were followed there would be no meaningful risk to the community. After all we have been letting infected NZ’ers back into the country. The farmers are working full tilt to provide food, while most city people sit in their homes. We must be practical.
Our Mass of the near future might be limited to 100 with 2 meters spacing. Everyone temperature checked with a non-contact thermometer at the door. Spiritual communion only. Everyone to wear a mask and gloves (you can’t even get them at the moment). Or the Destiny church car park idea of everyone in their cars and a big screen.
With spiritual guidance and discipline anything is possible. Once the number of infections hopefully stabilise at a low level the government restrictions will begin to be lifted. I hope our bishops will provide inspired leadership and get our Mass back as soon as possible.
Bruce Tichbon says:
ReplyDeleteWe don’t want people to die unnecessarily, but we need to be practical too, spiritually, medically, socially and economically.
This could go on for months or years, until there is a vaccine, or until the community develops some level of immunity. We have never had effective vaccines for common cold and flu, and the Spanish flu of 1918 disappeared when herd immunity was achieved (no vaccine and 9,000 NZ’ers dead).
Once we have got over the initial anxiety, which I appreciate is currently great, we may be able to get our Mass back. If proper procedures were followed there would be no meaningful risk to the community. After all we have been letting infected NZ’ers back into the country. The farmers are working full tilt to provide food, while most city people sit in their homes.
We must be practical. Our Mass of the near future might be limited to 100 with 2 meters spacing. Everyone temperature checked with a non-contact thermometer at the door. Spiritual communion only. Everyone to wear a mask and gloves (you can’t even get them at the moment). Or the Destiny church car park idea of everyone in their cars and a big screen.
With spiritual guidance and discipline anything is possible. Once the number of infections hopefully stabilise at a low level the government restrictions will begin to be lifted.
I hope our bishops will provide inspired leadership and get our Mass back as soon as possible.