We return to Mass full throttle next week, and no one knows what we’ll find.
Personally I’m feeling uplifted and thankful that prayers were answered, with God producing this miracle just weeks after provincial authorities further extended a ban on public worship. Now, for the first time in a long time, houses of worship aren’t being treated like poor cousins of restaurants and pubs.
There should be a prevailing sense of joy among us as we head back to church without social distancing, masks optional, no registering. So why does part of me think it’s going to take some time before we recover from the ordeal we’ve gone through since 2020. Maybe it was hearing the first question put to Dr. Bonnie Henry as she unveiled the restart. A reporter asked, “Why invite the transmission of variants by removing the mask requirement?”
There’s little doubt media will be agitating for the return of masks this fall, and many people who have become accustomed to the status quo of face coverings and physical distancing will have difficulty letting go.
I received a phone call from a reader who is extremely concerned about returning to Mass. The reader, who is immune compromised, is worried about the danger posed by unvaccinated people in church who “engage in high-risk activities” like eating in restaurants without masks. Because of this danger, the caller feels “shoved out” of their church. “I don’t know how to be with people who used to be my friends.”
The caller ended by saying “I don’t know what to do anymore, it would be really helpful if we had an article on how to deal with this division in the church.”
This, like it or not, is my attempt at that article.
What we’ve been through has taken its toll on everyone, from front-line health-care workers who have carried most of the burden, to journalists who are traumatized and suffering from PTSD because of the intense and panic-inducing way they’ve covered COVID. We’ve witnessed suicides, bankruptcies, physical and mental health issues, divorce, and increased violence.
The pandemic, governments’ responses to it, and our response to the responses have all altered our perceptions and rewired our assumptions about government, science, media, the Church, technology, and truth.
Many of us are returning to church more skeptical, confused, polarized, broken, and fearful than we were before the pandemic, if that’s possible.
The reader who called me is sincerely afraid, and is also a devoted Catholic. Many of us can relate to what they’re going through. I suspect much of the anxiety comes from the isolation we’ve been experiencing and the compartmentalized nature of information we’ve been consuming. What we believe depends on what we read and listen to. I hope we’ll be able to start expanding our circles again and broadening our conversations.
I hope we’ll also be able to recall Jesus’ many comforting words about fear and anxiety. As he assured us, “do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?”
Church is an excellent place for everything that needs to happen. After the Calvary we’ve been walking the past year and a half, our return to church community and the sacraments is going to be a healthy and rewarding blessing.
