The quarantine-driven stripping down of my usual activities has illuminated several things for me. It has shown me, and I suspect many others, what is truly valuable in life. It has shown many what they can do without. On the less impactful side,
it has shown a few how many pushups they can do, and considerably more just how long they can go without showering. In ways both positive and negative, people are learning about their priorities and inclinations.

As a priest, I have seen most of the basics of my pastoral life continue in some modified fashion. I am still saying Mass, albeit without my flock present. I am still hearing confessions, either by appointment or while setting up shop in the parking lot, ten feet away and sometimes with a cigar in hand. I am still even anointing folks in certain dire situations, along with new restrictions like wearing PPE and using a
q-tip to apply the oil and then burning it afterwards. But the thing that has been most unsettling for me has been repressing, or at least redirecting, the fundamental drive of the priesthood, that is, to go out and bring as many souls to the Father as possible. That remains the goal, but the means have changed so comprehensively and so rapidly that it’s been a bit much to take in.
 
The sacraments are existential witnesses to the abundance of God’s mercy. I don’t want to hear a few confessions or forgive some sins; I want to forgive them all. When I have Mass, I’d rather preach to 1,000 than to seven (but I’ll still preach to seven if that’s what we’ve got.) When I go to a hospital to anoint someone, I try to find a chaplain to see if there’s anyone else who might need a priest so I can knock out a few extra birds with one trip. One of the particular graces for which I pray every week is zeal for souls. Now I have to learn, for a short time,how that can be lived out in an age when circumstances dictate minimizing human contact.

Today’s feast of Divine Mercy is always meaningful to those who seek God, but perhaps this year more than usual. Even in times when we feel limited in how we can bring Christ to others and bring others to Christ, our prayers for God to bestow His mercy upon the whole world can be offered with a faith and an understanding that shatters the inattentiveness that periodically grows in our hearts. God always hears our prayers for our own conversion, the conversion of our loved ones, and the conversion of all those who have turned away from God. During this great feast, take time to thank God for the gift of mercy that He bestows on us through
His Church and the sacraments, and ask Him to continue to use the outpouring of His mercy to draw all peoples to Himself.
 
Prayers always,
Fr. McC