Yesterday, after attending Mass for the Solemnity of All Saints, I went to the hospital to visit the sick for over 3 hours. I didn’t expect to be there for that long, but Our Lord’s and Our Lady of Sorrows’ beloved afflicted souls were in need of prayers, ministering, and a loving presence. I serve on the pastoral care team at my parish that visits the sick to pray with them and assess their spiritual needs, while also providing Holy Communion to practicing Catholics at the hospital. More than anything, hospital ministry has become a place of evangelization.
Pastoral care ministry is no longer a role simply requiring an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion to deliver the Holy Eucharist on behalf of priests who cannot reach all of the sick due to the priest shortage crisis in the Church. The vast majority of people who register as Catholic when they are admitted to the hospital are not practicing, which means they need us to minister to them in person and invite them back. The days of handing out Holy Communion to everyone in the hospital is over.
When we enter into the rooms of these suffering souls, we are there to proclaim the Good News and lead them back to Christ and His Church. This ministry requires evangelists who are willing to go into suffering hearts in order to invite them to return to the Catholic Church. Hospitals are a vast mission field of our day.
As I walked from room to room visiting patients, I heard many different stories. I heard from those who stopped attending Mass during COVID and who now watch livestream Masses. This was one of the more difficult issues I came up against because people who have turned to virtual Mass attendance in many cases do so because they tell me it’s easier. They don’t want to go back to in person Mass.
They do not understand the Real Presence of Our Lord in the Eucharist. I would attempt to engage with people on this topic, pointing to Our Lord’s Real Presence, but a combination of fear and indifference makes it nearly impossible to penetrate. In these circumstances, all I could do was issue an invitation to return to Mass, provide a Mass and Sacraments schedule, and pray with them.
The fallout from COVID livestream Masses has now become a diabolical roadblock that will require much prayer and sacrifice to overcome for many souls. It was an inherent danger with having parishes closed for so long across the West. I have encountered people of all ages who have convinced themselves that they can simply watch Mass in their pajamas on Sunday and not attend in person. They do not care that the bishops’ dispensations lifted a long time ago. These are not by-in-large homebound people who cannot get to Mass. They simply do not want to go.
With the poor catechesis that plagues the Church, it cannot be all too surprising that many people who are no longer in the pews never understood that Our Lord’s body, blood, soul, and divinity is truly present in the Holy Eucharist, which means we must be physically present at Mass. It is going to take guidance from the Holy Spirit to help pastoral care teams evangelize these souls who have turned from communion with the Church by refusing to be a part of the worshipping community.
Read the rest at Catholic Exchange.
Swimming the Depths 