THEY WILL PUT YOU OUT OF THE SYNAGOGUES

A REFLECTION FOR THE SUNDAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE OF ASCENSION

We’ve been through a lot lately.  It all started with the realization that the very unpleasant situation that had been playing out in Wuhan, China, had made its way to our own shores and was going to become a major element in our daily lives.  As stories began to appear on our TVs of elderly people dying in Washington nursing homes, then the quarantine of New Rochelle in New York, enforced by the National Guard, we started to wonder how bad this was going to get.  It didn’t take long to find out.  Our fears of the virus itself were soon overtaken by other concerns, as food shortages and school closures eventually gave way to massive unemployment and financial mayhem as businesses closed and the stock market plummeted.

Not a very happy time, to be sure.  And the disaster was compounded by the behavior of many political leaders, who forced us to “stay-at-home” and practice “social distancing” with all the psychological and health effects that ensued—loneliness, stress, domestic abuse, addiction, and even suicide.  It was not easy being separated from our families, especially from those who really needed us, the elderly in their nursing homes who were suffering the most.  If ever in the course of human history there was a time when people felt the need for God, this was it.

But where was God to be found?  Most churches were forced to close.  We shouldn’t expect anything else from the Democrats, who mostly hate God, religion, and anyone who prays.  That is evident from their enthusiasm in flaunting God’s most basic laws (think abortion and same-sex marriage for starters).  What was more distressing was the action of so-called Catholic bishops who not only cooperated with, but exceeded the extent of the civil law, by closing all their churches and putting a complete stop to the public celebration of Mass.  I personally know of a bishop who forbade one of his priests from administering the Last Rites to a dying woman.  Admittedly, the wholesale abolition of invalid sacraments may be a good thing in the eyes of God, but it was nevertheless an alarming precedent.  To deprive the faithful of their ability to worship publicly was a new low for the pastors of the new Church.  It was somewhat consoling to see the ensuing rebellion of many new-order priests, as they organized drive-by confessions, drive-in Masses, and other innovative ways of bringing their sacraments to the faithful.  Hopefully, the latest presidential announcement will restore our right to worship without restriction.

There are those who fear this whole situation may be a dry-run for something more drastic in the coming months, and there are those who are confident of the return to a more stable future.  But we should all recognize that these last couple of months have been a grim reminder of our Lord’s words in today’s Gospel:  “They shall put you out of the synagogues… and these things will they do unto you because they have not known the Father, nor me.”  These enemies of God, and there are many, still don’t know their divine Creator, and are certain to continue their assault on his Church.  So let’s prepare for an uncertain future by keeping today’s message stored in our minds: “These things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them.”