I am grateful to the pope, the cardinals, the bishops and all the priests who take the reality of COVID-19 so seriously, that they’ve suspended public Masses to prevent the further contagion of their congregations.  It must be painful and lonely for all of them, as it is for us. I hope for the day when these restrictions can be lifted but understand the need.  

However, there are some who insist the Masses should be restored, thinking because the Eucharist is the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ, that no harm could come (for example, catching the coronavirus) from partaking.   The reality of the Eucharist is a physical, spiritual reality, and yet it remains as always is the case with our faith, both and.  The accident of form, the bread and wine, retain the reality of bread and wine.  

If you eat the consecrated host and are gluten intolerant and it was made as a host prior to the celebration of the liturgy of the Eucharist, with gluten, you might suffer ill effects from such consumption, irrespective of your devotion and fervor of faith.  If you drink the consecrated wine, the Blood of Christ, in sufficient quantities, you will experience the effects of alcohol.  To the eye, to the taste, to scientific examination, the host remains identifiable as a host, and the wine, identifiable as wine.   The reality is greater we know, and yet the reality before, can still be discerned.   

People posed the question, is it possible to get coronavirus from receiving the Eucharist, with the choices being:  

 A.) Yes, because the reality of reality remains, even as we celebrate the Mass.  
 B.) No, because God would not allow His son to be a source of an ill.
 C.) The third answer as simply “We don’t know.”    

To my way of thinking, the answer is D.) All and none of the above. 

We do know that the Eucharist is the Eucharist.  We also know a contagion is a contagion.  Even stipulating if the Eucharist could be completely free from the disease, we have each of ourselves to contend with as well.   

The “yes” of answer A reality is we must act as if it is always true, that we could get sick, because God does not eliminate suffering from our lives by our faith, but is with us in the suffering of our lives, inviting us deeper into our faith.  

The “no” of answer B is also true. We also know, God can and does, break into our lives in obvious ways via the sacraments, via miracles, and as such, we must allow for the possibility (not the certainty) of God opting to grace us with such protection. We wouldn’t know until after the fact, but it is within God’s purview to do so.

Answer “C” is incorrect because we can know that God can act in this fashion, but not know if God will, and thus we must act as wise as serpents and gentle as doves, submitting ourselves to the task at hand of waiting in joyful hope for the coming of our Lord.   

We are a people who love the Eucharist. We adore it.  We know it to be so much more than what we can see or smell or taste or touch.   It is reasonable that we long for it.  It is reasonable to want to argue for its return.  However, it is not Catholic to treat the Eucharist as a talisman so to speak, against all harm.  Jesus allowed himself to be wounded, and thus we must likewise know, it is possible He will enter our lives through our wounds as well.   

We are not a people who believes in magic.  We believe in a person, Jesus Christ.   We come to Him as a people seeking God’s healing, petitioning for God’s mercy, and often unaware of the miraculous, just as the disciples on the way to Damascus, were unaware of Jesus walking with them.  “Jesus walks with us now,” a priest said this weekend in a homily online. I thought about the bemused Jesus walking with each of us, trying through everything that is, to reveal His love for us, and invite us into deeper friendship.  

Our job in this time of blessed waiting, is to prepare to receive Him, however He comes to us. Our job is to hope our hearts burn as He explains everything until the veil is dropped and we see Him face to face.  Until then, our job is to seek to see Him in the eyes of those who need, and hear Him in the words of Scripture, and to let others see Him by our actions, and hear Him in our words; so that if they see Him in our actions and hear Him in our words, He will make Himself more known, more visible, and the accident of us, will be just that, an accident of form.

(Sherry Antonetti, a columnist for the Catholic Standard, is the author of The Book of Helen, a freelancer and blogger  of @Chocolate For Your Brain!)