If a business does something you don’t like, you leave and go to their competitor. If a CEO does something customers disapprove of, the people can boycott. Companies are expected to bow to customer demands. The customer, after all, is always right. But what happens when the the faithful begin treating Holy Mother Church as though she were a corporation with a commodity to be demanded?
As Catholics in an age of Coronavirus, how are we responding to the extended shutting down of the sacraments? Hopefully, instead to taking to social media to complain about how much our Bishops have failed us, we have quietly redoubled our prayer and fasting. If every negative comment posted on social media was replaced with a prayer for an end to the virus and the reopening of the sacraments, we would probably be in much better shape.
This is the Divine Economy – not the American economy. We do not have the right to demand the Eucharist. It would be wrong to “shop around” for the Holy Eucharist as though the very Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ was a bag of rice on a grocery shelf. We didn’t find it at this store, so we go and find it at another store that under normal circumstances we would never frequent. Are we guilty of treating the Sanctissimum like a commodity?
These times call for an extra measure of humility. The faithful are filled with deep and abiding love of the Lord and His sacraments. But if we aren’t given what we so deeply desire, we should not grab at it like a child demanding candy from his parents. Yes, we are children. We are God’s children. We must trust Him, and we must wait for Him to feed us at a time of His own choosing. He will not let his sheep starve. Trust, be patient, and hope.
Communion Antiphon for 2nd Sunday after Easter
I am the good Shepherd, alleluia: and I know My sheep, and mine know Me, alleluia, alleluia.
John 10:14
