Pastoral work and worship in the time of COVID-19 – first thoughts

Last Monday our pastor came to Plan Grande for a Mass on the anniversary of the death of the father of a member of the community, a dear man, Raul Aguirre. I knew him and his sons. Though enfeebled he would walk each Sunday from his home about two miles from Dulce Nombre for the 9 am Mass there. I would often give him a ride when I saw him. He’d throw his crutch into the bed of my truck and sit next to me in the cab.

There were probably twenty five persons in the church in Plan Grande – carefully separated. We also remembered three other deaths in the community in the last few months.

This was my first Mass and the first chance I’ve had to receive communion since March.

I’m been thinking a lot about what we can do. Many here think that because we have not had cases of COVID-19 in our parish one can move toward a life as it before the emergency, I try to get people to think about this more carefully. But I have serious concerns about opening up too soon, giving a false sense of security.

In March, just before the pandemic was being felt here, I went with the pastor and a seminarian in our parish to a remote village that has not had pastoral work for many years. We visited the abandoned church and prayed there. But what I noted was that two words were written on the front of the church - Cristo vive - Christ is alive. I believe that this is the message that needs to guide our present and future pastoral work. 

I am trying to put together an article to share here to help us respond. In this post, I’d like to share some of my ideas, concerns, and observations (some of which are probably wrong.)

Some people are concerned about the life of faith. I have people calling me asking about return to religious education of children. I strongly advise against it, explaining the reasons – and now that the pastor and I have talked we have agreed that we should put off any religious education and not have classes.

I urge the catechists to encourage parents to pray together with their children in their family, perhaps beginning this month with the rosary, a traditional Marian devotion which is practiced especially in May and October.

I have heard that there are a few families that meet together to pray and read the scriptures from the lectionary. That is admirable and a great idea.

But the problem is that many families do not really know how to pray together. We have failed to teach them

There is a lot of promotion here of the family as “the domestic church,” but have we really given the families the resources and the formation to be a domestic church?

There are base communities in our diocese, but some of them are rather large (20-30 people) and their meetings are more mini-celebrations of the Word than places to share together about their faith and their daily lives. I fear they have become too institutional, connected with filling the needs of structures in the parish and, in some places, as requirements for receiving sacraments. Have we formed communities where people can share their faith and grow in solidarity?

As we think about living with COVID-19 for months, and perhaps years, we need to think about alternative structures of worship, the sacramental life, and parishes.

Most of all, I believe, we need to find ways to help people grow in their faith in a way that is personal and participative. It is not enough to watch a Mass on the television, as a fairly passive spectator. If a family is finding ways to make their televised Masses a time to pray together as a family, perhaps including a time for personal intentions and sharing on the scriptures, that makes of what might be a mere spectacle into moments of family intimacy with each other and with God.

I think we also need to help people learn how to pray – on their own, not dependent on a priest or the local delegate of the Word. This is perhaps one of the most critical challenges here – and throughout the world.

This means faith formation of parents as well as young people and children and faith formation that is not linked to receiving sacraments. Religious formation of children which is only preparation for sacraments is a major issue here and the diocese is promoting programs of religious formation by ages or grades. This is a needed first step and the material does see a role for the parents in the formation, but more is needed. Perhaps we should think in the long term of family catechesis. Who knows what might work, but we need to dream and experiment.

Base communities and small groups might become in the future places where adult can grow in their faith – not receiving instruction but reflecting together on their faith and their lives. This means training of leaders in their faith and in promoting participation and reflection by all members of a community.

A major challenge in this is the sense that many people have here in Honduras that they really don’t have anything to contribute. There are people who know – and we need to have them teach us. (I almost wrote indoctrinate us.) Whether these are the clergy or delegates of the Word or professors or people with degrees, they are the “authorities” and we have to obey them and accept what they say. I will write more on this later, but I think this is what has led to the political mess we have today with corruption, boss leadership, and partisan politics. But that’s another blog post.

I am not pessimistic; neither am I optimistic. But I have hope, a hope that can challenge us to look for imaginative, creative, and life-affirming alternatives.

But that’s a lot of work. I look forward to this work and I am trying to use these days of confinement as an opportunity to read, think, and pray for a new Honduras.