This pandemic has created havoc in every facet of life and unsettled all order in our day to day affairs. At the present juncture it is hard to envision how long this period will last and what changes will be required to be made in our manner of living. One aspect which has disturbed the order of things is the religious angle. Temples, churches and mosques have been closed since the last 4 months and it is uncertain when they will be safe to re-open. For the Catholic community in particular which follows Community worship which are usually large gatherings in Churches and other religious practices, life is never the same. Fortunately for us daily Mass is available on the electronic media from various sources. Besides, other devotions like the Adoration services, Retreats, Novenas and other religious discourses are freely available.
But what is lacking is the opportunity for the laity to partake of the Eucharist which is at the heart of Catholic worship. Every Catholic priest has the obligation to say the daily Mass and partake of the Body and Blood of Christ but the laity is deprived of this most important Sacrament since the last four months. The Faithful bemoan that the Church Hierarchy could have devised ways of giving opportunities to the laity to participate. What is observed in the YouTube masses is that the same group of people are given a chance to participate in the televised masses. Even if 5 different people were given an opportunity to take part in the daily Mass, by now hundreds of people could have had the privilege to receive Holy Communion. In the Metros in general and in Goa in particular there are many religious houses besides Parish houses in which dwell hundreds of priests wherein opportunities could have been given to the laity to attend Masses by rotation so that many faithful could have benefitted .
Besides the Eucharist, the Sacrament of Reconciliation is very vital for the Catholic faithful. If we could have Masses and Spiritual Communion using the medium of YouTube we could certainly take this advantage and people could have used the telephone/mobile network for the Sacrament of reconciliation with one to one communication with a priest, more so as the conventional mode of confessions are unlikely to commence in the foreseeable future.. The Church has in store numerous Eucharistic Ministers whose services could have been utilized to distribute Holy Communion to small number of the Faithful in their homes. Besides, the Church has the medium of General Absolution which could have been utilized for the remission of sins. It is very painful for many of the faithful who were used to daily partaking of the Holy Communion to be totally deprived of this privilege and the Church Hierarchy has to devise some ways to fulfil the craving of the faithful. If the mere touch of Jesus’ garment healed the haemorrhaging woman in the Gospels we need to have more faith in the healing power of our mighty Saviour and introduce in some way the Sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist for the Faithful.
