I have been blessed throughout my life to never really feel alone. I grew up in a loving family with my parents and 12 brothers and sisters. I have always had close friends and strong relationships with parishioners. My brother priests are truly brothers in our calling. The staff, volunteers and clients at Catholic Charities are like family to me.
None of that changed during the pandemic, but my soul was not fed in the same way without direct contact, smiles, hugs, shared laughs and tears. I never felt alone, but I understood probably more than at any other time in my life what true loneliness must be like.
God created us for love, and we cannot fully experience or express love when we are not in the presence of others. We can and do share love through phone calls, emails, text messages and various other ways, but as good as modern technology has become, nothing equals being present in person.
You can’t hug someone over Zoom, and hugs not only make us feel better mentally, emotionally and spiritually, they even have physical benefits. Science tells us that hugs can reduce inflammation, blood pressure, and the severity of colds. Most of all, we feel love and an antidote to the worst poverty as described by St. Teresa of Calcutta: “The most terrible poverty is loneliness, and the feeling of being unloved.”
Understanding how important and powerful our physical presence is, I would like to appeal to all who are not yet back to attending Mass in person. Thankfully, most of us are able to gather again safely in numbers, but I fear that a number of us got used to streaming Sunday Mass or just skipping it altogether.
On a Sunday in August, I totaled up the number of people who attended Mass at St. Bartholomew’s, where I live. Before the pandemic, about 1,200 people came each Sunday across seven Masses. I recognize that people are out of town in August, but I was still surprised to see that attendance was just a little more than 600 for that particular Sunday. I hear similar stories from other parishes.
It seems there is still a reluctance to attend Mass for many. There are legitimate safety concerns for some, of course, but for most of us the pattern of attending Mass weekly got broken by the pandemic. The availability of livestream Masses has become the new norm for many.
The Church has long said that Jesus is present in the celebration of the Eucharist in four ways: 1) in the consecrated bread and wine, 2) in the Word of God proclaimed from the pulpit, 3) in the priest who celebrates “in the person of Christ,” and 4) in the people who gather.
Not attending Mass in person diminishes not just our encounter with Christ but our neighbor’s as well. When we don’t gather at all, when we watch Mass at home from our couches, we are less of a Church than we are called to be.
For all who are able, please make that effort to come back to Sunday Mass. You will strengthen your own faith and the faith of your entire community. “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” (Matthew 18:20)
I also encourage everyone to think and pray about getting more involved serving God’s kingdom by serving our brothers and sisters in Christ. We have so many needs and opportunities available through our parishes as well as Catholic Charities.
We purposely cut back on our Catholic Charities’ volunteers during COVID-19 in the interest of everyone’s health and safety. For now, it seems we can safely restart most of our volunteer programs, and people are again comfortable with what we once considered normal activities. I am hopeful that many will become more involved again.
It takes some effort to break the inertia that was forced upon us. I have been told by schoolteachers that many of young people have lost their “grit.” They come to school and do what the need to, but that internal drive to go beyond the minimum and be the best they can be is not as strong as it once was.
I suspect this is true for many of us adults as well. For understandable reasons, we stopped serving and got comfortable not pushing ourselves and our loved ones to make a difference to those around us. Please consider helping meet one of the many needs in your neighborhood, your parish or through nonprofits. We would welcome you with open arms at Catholic Charities. (You can find more information at catholiccharitiesdc.org and clicking on “Volunteer” in the upper right corner.)
For our Catholic Charities gala earlier this year, I did a fun little video in which my mantra was, “We’re back, baby. We’re back.” I think that resonated with people, and we are closer than ever to being back in our community, our parishes and our Church. Now is a great time to make sure you are part of that new flow of commitment, energy and service to those who deserve our attention and care.
The wonder of praying together and the wonder of serving together bring about the wonders of faith and joy (and fun!) when we work together building up God’s family, as we are called to do. I know God looks forward to seeing each and every one of us at Mass, and seeing us share a smile, a hug or helping hand to those in need.
Msgr. Enzler is the president and CEO of Catholic Charities of The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington.
