COVID -19 and Envisioning a New Faith Life

(Published in Lantern, Magazine of Kalyan, June 2020)

Five days after Easter this year, during homily Pope Francis stressed: “The ideal of the Church is always to have the Sacraments and the people of God together, and that thinking otherwise is dangerous.” He said it in the context of lockdown due to the COVID 19, as the Holy Week celebrations were done without the presence of the faithful, but were watched via live streaming. Probably the first lesson this pandemic teaches us is that the church is not a building. Most of us have noticed the statement, ‘the Church does not close; only the building; as the people being the Church, are everywhere’. This awareness about the Church, however, needs to be properly understood.

The Understanding about the Eucharist and the Questions to be Resolved

Liturgical celebration has the central position in Christian life. The Eucharist is "the source and summit” of the Christian life, for in Christ is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church (CCC: 1324). We shall not live eternally unless we eat his Body and drink his Blood (Jn. 6: 53). Covid 19 has adversely affected this sum and substance of our faith. The Eucharist as receiving the Body and Blood into the life of the faithful is hindered world-wide due to this pandemic. The questions to be resolved here are: What is the position of the Church regarding the online services? Can the online liturgical services be justified in any circumstances? Can the online services substitute the real Eucharistic celebration?

Use of Media and Online Services

The Church often has declared her conviction about the internet and media. The Second Vatican Council says it as, “marvellous technical inventions” that already do much to meet human needs. For Church, the media is a ‘gift of God' which, in his providential design, unite men in brotherhood enabling them to cooperate with his plan for their salvation. Pope Paul VI said the Church “would feel guilty before the Lord” if it failed to use the media for evangelization. Pope John Paul II has clarified that the Church has to integrate the message into the ‘new culture' by modern communications”. 

The internet has a remarkable capacity to overcome distance and isolation. The Church can perform an important service to all by the selection and transmission of useful data through this medium. It also provides the Church with a means for communicating with particular groups—young people and young adults, the elderly and homebound, persons living in remote areas, the members of other religious bodies—who otherwise may be difficult to reach besides using it for new evangelization. A growing number of parishes, dioceses, religious congregations, and church-related institutions and organizations now make effective use of the internet. Church-related groups that have not yet taken steps to enter cyberspace are encouraged to seek the possibility of doing so at the earliest. The Church, keeping in view its special character as a direct, immediate, interactive, and participatory medium, needs to use internet as a tool for internal communication.

Sacramental Reality and Online Services

At the same time, the virtual reality of cyberspace has some worrisome implications for religious life. Virtual reality is no substitute for the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, the sacramental reality of the other sacraments, and shared worship in a flesh-and-blood human community. There are no sacraments on the Internet; and even the religious experiences possible there by the grace of God are insufficient apart from real-world interaction with other persons of faith.

During the above said homily, Pope Francis emphasizes: “Be careful not to virtualize the Church, to virtualize the Sacraments, to virtualize the People of God. The Church, the Sacraments, the People of God are concrete. The Apostles grew in familiarity with the Lord as they were with Jesus in community, not isolated. That is why “a familiarity without the community, without Bread, without the Church, without the people, without the Sacraments is dangerous.”

As we go ahead with the Pandemic

May be the virtual liturgies have already risked a new kind of centralization and de-localization of the Catholic Church. As there are many online liturgies available, some might have got settled with the most liked or attractive ones and do not want to move away from that. As we look to reopen the church with new precautions and continued uncertainty, clear communication is necessary to ensure the gradual and consistent changes that need to be understood by all. The Leaders (Priests and all others in leadership) and the congregation are to have a new method of communication in order to be effective .The following are some of the suggestions for further reflections.

(1) Communicate through online consistently and proactively ahead of time about safety measures to be taken. (2) Avail online platforms that provide opportunities for the community to meet or lead small groups. (3) Decide what online strategies will benefit the congregation. (4)  Publish weekly newsletters to bridge the communication gap. (5)  Acknowledge the new ways church services will operate. (6) Assess what practices are successful and which to drop. (7) Begin training processes for the documentation of online systems and programs that will be used in future. (8) Conduct games and contests online that are designed to foster community sense. (9) Encourage leaders to engage dialoguing with the community by listening, responding to comments and questions. (10) Set aside specific times to host study or prayer times online. (11) Ensure that each community has an account in the communicative apps like Whatsapp, Facebook and Instagram so your media and message can stand out. Try using interactive methods if you have a younger audience. (12)  Organize a group of rescue workers if somebody is in difficulty.

The experience of COVID-19 has heightened the consciousness and reawakened the conscience of the church to the fragile, incarnate reality of human life. The church, like the whole world, has also been reminded by our experience of social distancing that human life can only be fully human when lived in solidarity and community with others. There is no Christian faith lived without the real presence Jesus and received his body and blood. This dark tunnel till end and the light that waits of us is certainly brighter.