St. Vincent de Paul Parish issued the following announcement on September 6.
Just up the road from Hanover, just north of the square in Hampton, stands Saint John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church. The sign board in front of the brick church usually features a statement that can cause one to pause and think. Currently, that statement is: “Social distancing doesn’t apply to God, draw nearer to Him.” In midMarch, faithful Catholics could empathize with the Hebrew people in the time of Isaiah and Ezekiel when they were living in exile in Babylon, far away from the Temple. Just as the Hebrew people hungered to worship the One True God in Jerusalem, so Catholics hungered to worship the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in their parish Churches. Most of all, they hungered for the Eucharist. They wanted to be in the presence of our Eucharistic Lord and receive Him. Just as the Hebrew people in exile responded to the call for repentance of their idolatry, so we Catholics, indeed all who are baptized in Christ, clergy and laity alike, must respond to the call to repentance of our sins in these days. We must repent from “our regular desecration of the day of the Lord, for our wide scale abandonment of the Confessional, for the regularity of the reception of the Eucharist outside a state of grace, for our compromise with secular morality, for our substandard catechesis, for our worship robbed of its sense of transcendence, for our failures in the Great Commission, and for our harboring and coveringup of criminal and nefarious behavior.”1 Some folks may “claim innocence but forget when God exiled Judah, it was not just the Jews who engaged in idolatry that were exiled and lost the temple…it was the good and faithful Jews who did as well.”2 The rest of the story: While in exile, the Hebrew people repented, persevered in faith, and developed a mature trust in God. When they finally returned to Jerusalem, they rebuilt the Temple, began again to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and prepared for the longpromised Messiah. How did we fare in our Eucharistic exile? Did we lay aside our worldliness and turn back in faithfulness to God? Did we fast and pray and respond to God’s call to continuing conversion? Have we made the radical change in our lives to break away from worldliness and return to forming our consciences in union with the teachings of Christ? Did we make the most of our exile to draw nearer to God??? Like the Hebrews, we have returned from exile, and are again coming into God’s presence with thanksgiving, kneeling before Him who made us, and joyfully worshipping Him. Gathered together in Jesus’ name, “let us then throw off the works of darkness [and] put on the armor of light.” 3 Live for God. Be transformed by His Grace. Go and make disciples. Peace in Christ, Father Michael 1 Rev. Bill Peckman, Pastor of Ss. Peter and Paul Parish in Boonville, MO and St. Joseph Parish in Fayette, MO. 2 ibid. 3 Romans 13:12 (NAB)
Original source can be found here.
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