I thought about the trajectory we have been on in our Gospel readings so far during the holy season of Lent. The first Sunday in Lent, we heard about Jesus being thrust into the desert by the Holy Spirit, where he was tempted by Satan. Last Sunday, we heard about Jesus’ transfiguration on the mountaintop in the presence of some of his apostles. This Sunday, we hear of Jesus cleansing the Temple of all that is not leading the people to God. Jesus tells those who doubt him: Destroy this temple and I shall raise it up in three days. The people were perplexed and confused. They thought Jesus was speaking about the physical building of the Temple in Jerusalem. How would Jesus raise up a huge building complex like that in three days? Many of them still did not understand what the resurrection was all about.
This week, we had a Zoom workshop about how to get people back to Church. This pandemic has disrupted our lives in many ways, hasn’t it? Things are not back to “normal,” whatever “normal” means anymore. I remember how everything felt so strange and surreal the first time I went into Kroger and everyone was wearing masks and how working in downtown Jackson at the chancery office was like being in ghost town with no cars or people anywhere. Now, what started in the midst of our Lenten journey is still here a year later. Just like there will still be a part of the resurrection of Christ that will remain a mystery of faith, perhaps there are a lot of elements of the pandemic that we just don’t understand.
However, as we are to have courage and tenacity on our Lenten journey, we are to have courage as we live out our faith in the pandemic. I saw a photo of a priest in New York on the internet standing in front of a grocery store with a sign that says: “If it is safe for you to go into the store and shop, it is safe for you to return to mass.” We courageously kept our Mass open right before Christmas when a lot of Protestant denominations were keeping everything shut down. We did that knowing that we take the mandate to protect everyone at our parish and at our Masses very seriously. But we also want to encourage everyone to engage in their faith as fully as they can. By taking our protocols seriously, we can safely protect ourselves and the other parishioners. However, under most circumstances, our drive-in masses and our sparsely attended daily Masses are as safe as anyplace you will find right now.
Jesus had a harsh message for the people of Israel in today's Gospel in order to shake them out of their complacency. In the midst of our reality and of the reality of many still not coming back to Mass in-person, it is a very appropriate message for us to hear in the midst of our Lenten journey.
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