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On Being Trapped

With all this isolation, quarantine, physical distancing, we are all experiencing some confinement and insulation.  At least, that is my feeling.  Whether at home or in the parish, I sense somehow that I am trapped.

Home is not so bad since five other Jesuits are in the house.  There is camaraderie; but, as days go by, even that palls and I need to escape to the privacy of my room.

Church is worse.  Celebrating Mass before a camera and two persons in a space meant for as many as 800, missing my congregation, I sense I’m in exile, cut off from what should be.  Especially on Holy Saturday, I felt I was in the tomb.  Lots of emptiness.

I guess it was a real experience of that part of the Easter Triduum.  But the lighting of the Christ Candle at the Vigil  of Easter reminded me that confinement, darkness, and death is not the end for disciples of Jesus.

Jesus promises light and life to those faithful to Him.   I pray to be a faithful and fervent bearer of His light to others especially during this Easter and pandemic time.  That is my prayer for you too!