The ministry of distance
Ours is not the only time when Catholics have had to wait to receive the Eucharist or make a confession. In many parts of the world, the faithful have to wait simply because of the great distance between them. Social distance is for them an everyday reality.
In a number of places, we know priests, religious women, and lay people who travel hundreds of miles per week to pray with the faithful. One of them is Father Garrett Nelson, who serves in northeastern Montana.
He is the newest version of the missionaries of old, like the “Cavalry of Christ,” the Oblates of Mary Immaculate who once rode horseback to visit missions in south Texas. (The Oblates are still there, though they now tend to drive.)
Many who live far from cities or even from parishes know intimately their hunger for the Eucharist.
We who are, perhaps for the first time, feeling distant from the Eucharist because of the pandemic can recall that there are many around the world who cannot get to Mass with any regularity. There is a kind of “spiritual gluttony” that can come from living in a developed area where Mass is always available. We can practice spiritual communion, remembering that as a community of faith we must practice care for one another.
Christ came to draw all people to God. But it is important to remember that in order to do this, he first drew a community to himself: first the apostles, then the Church. Though the Lord calls each of us by name, the Lord also calls us to serve one another, so that together we might gather as a Church and serve each other, even when we are far apart.
