03/25/2020
A Message From The Padre - Fr Paul Quanz
What follows is the fruit of my meditations particularly upon the Gospel for the fourth Sunday of Lent, John’s Gospel of the man born blind. And of course, these thoughts are also the result of the situation we are presently dealing with, the pandemic of the Covid-19.
My mind is flooded with scripture quotes and with other phrases from movies and plays that have helped shape these thought as I put my thoughts into words.
Since the Gospel is about the man born blind, who seeks the ability to see is replete with significant meaning as we try to work our way through these unprecedented times. The first question that comes to mind is what do we hope to “see” through this experience, and because of this experience in which we now find ourselves.
Part of me is unsure of what I am seeing. I have taken “extra” trips to the grocery store, to see firsthand what I read about in the media. Some of what I see is not as bad as what I have seen on the media and still part of what I see affects me more profoundly. What we will “see” of this experience, when it is over, if ever it is over, remains to be seen, as the phrase goes.
It is with that sense of wonder, “What will we learn/see.” from living through this crisis that has occupied my mind.
Certainly, as in our miracle story we want to know what caused this. The man was born blind, we never do find out exactly what caused it, he was blind. We know what causes the sickness we now experience but how it actually came to be seen, is still being sorted out, I think. There have been theories about dietary habits of a particular people, such as there were theories about why the man was born blind. Then there are the theories of how or why the man was cured.
In many ways seeking the reasons something started, or how it ends, can be partially enlightening, giving us some vision with which to guide us in the future. However, what seems to be more important is how we see ourselves changing for either the good or the bad because of this time in our lives. We don’t get a definitive answer by the blind man of what he was going to do after this experience. He seems eager to understand, but we never find out exactly. John does tell us that he worshipped Jesus. Not exactly sure what that means. The others in the parable are beginning to wonder about their ability to see clearly.
We have the phrase, “cannot see the forest for the trees” which comes to mind. I do not know at this point what I see or understand about our current situation in life. I do not know what I see, feel or understand.
For me, this is time of true desert. All that was is no more, security, understanding, sense of control and many others are challenged deeply if not shattered completely. It will take time to come to a full comprehension of what these past days and the future days will mean.
So far there has been one weekend of half the people in church and now, as I write this, we are on day 6 of no people in church. This is a new experience for me. I truly believe that I need to let this experience take some time to sink in before I can see what I will change about my life. Jesus spent 40 days in the desert, coming to a better understanding of his mission in life. We are only in day 6. It is my hope and pray that it doesn’t take 40 days to come to an understanding, but time will tell. The early church, those that lived with Jesus, took many years, actually decades, to articulate clearly what the Christ event meant, and we are still each trying to figure that our for ourselves. We will see what this pandemic means for us and the future lives we may endeavor to live.
Please know that, as I celebrate mass each day I raise each of you to the Father in prayer.
