There is no normal anymore and I don’t know when normal is going to return. We find ourselves stumbling around trying to make sense of the world as perhaps the blind man in Gospel had to do all his life, until he met Jesus. So, if you find yourself contending with fear or worry or anger, if any of these things threaten to consume you, go to Jesus.
In Pope Francis’ “Joy of the Gospel”, he reminds us that a parish is meant to be a flexible institution. Good thing, because it must be right now. He also said that what we can do, and what we are able to accomplish, really depends on the missionary creativity of our pastors and our people. But he reminds us where the real power is; that anything we can do and will accomplish depends on the power of God.
Last I checked the Holy Spirit hasn’t been quarantined. We can ask the Holy Spirit for courage, strength, and wisdom so that we can be church in our time. The Holy Spirit moves us, compels us and propels us outward to love as Jesus loves. Let’s ask for more of the Holy Spirit. Pope Francis also asks us to care for the whole person and Jesus does this beautifully in today’s Gospel healing the man born blind. Scripture says, how can we love the God we cannot see if we cannot love the brother or sister that is literally in front of us? In the second reading we are asked to be children of light. It is what people need, men and women filled with the Holy Spirit. People are looking for you and me to be church. If we want to be children of light bringing Christ to the world it is in situations like these where people will be searching for Christian love and Christian leadership. This is the time to ask the Holy Spirit for inspiration, to avail ourselves of God’s grace and image God’s love to those in need. I trust the Holy Spirit will inspire us together as we wait upon the Lord, as we give the Lord permission to do whatever He wants in us and through us in this unprecedented time.
