DIGITAL WORLD, COVID-19, REAL PRESENCE, FAMILY, PARISH

DIGITAL PRESENCE AND/OR REAL PRESENCE

“Sacramental reality is different than virtual reality and we all need to encounter sacramental reality.¹”

What is sacramental reality? A sacrament is a “sign” of something, usually, something sacred. A meager example of a sign of a reality is a wedding ring. The “reality” it signifies is the love of the spouse for the person wearing the ring which looks like a piece of metal wrapped around the finger, but to the person wearing the ring, the treasured reality is the giver and the pledged love of the giver. So, for the Eucharist, the sign is the Host; the sacramental reality is Jesus Himself.² Life would be empty, if all there is, is the material substance of the objects that we see.

“Encountering a sacramental reality is really about presence – the real presence – the presence of Jesus who comes to us through the sacraments. This is why the sacraments can’t be done through the digital world: because they require this real personal encounter with a Real Presence. And that’s different than a digital encounter.

“We, (Jesus’ disciples and true believers in Him) have to help our young people and each other see that, in fact, the bodily nature of who we are, requires that we be brought into the Real Presence of Jesus through the Sacraments. It is not enough simply to experience things in the digital world.

“This is even more challenging in the post-Covid-19 reality through which we are living, which is forcing us into the digital world for safety reasons. But we cannot remain there for long; we have to learn how to come into the real world which is sacramental.”³

The real world is the world of the sacramental presence. It is hard to perceive, but it is the only world that will continue once we physically die.

TWO FAMILIES WHERE WE MEET THE LORD: NATURAL FAMILIES AND PARISH FAMILIES

We should be helping ourselves and others to develop and nourish this sacramental imagination and presence and doing this both individually and in our families. Don’t let yourselves or your loved ones become trapped inside a digital world existence. Likewise, don’t be fooled into thinking that you can nurture your faith adequately by participating in digital family Masses.

SAINT MICHAEL PARISH, A “FAMILY OF FAMILIES”

We hope that your at-home internet or TV Masses are ones in which you experience being united with God and each other in prayer as a family of believers. When we return to St. Michael’s, may we come as a worshiping family and unite with the other worshiping families of our parish, forming, in Pope Francis’ words, the St. Michael Parish “family of families”⁴, who are, as God’s family, praising and thanking God for each other and for God’s gifts to all people.

Sister Loretta

1. Amoris Laetitia, §202, Pope Francis, 2016.
2. Bishop Frank Caggiano of Bridgeport CT says: “It seems to me that it is in our two families where we meet the Lord perhaps in the most intimate and powerful ways, and what are these two families? First and foremost is what I call our natural families where the parents are the first and best teachers of the faith, . . . because they can help their children to truly understand that they are lovable and they are loved by them. That my friends, becomes the conduit to encounter Jesus Christ. But we also have a second family, do we not? And we call that our parish community. When the parish comes together, whether it’s at sacrament, or in prayer, or in social events, or in works of justice or charity, whatever it may be, Christ is there present. . . . Family is the bedrock of society; family is the bedrock of the Church. And therefore, they are the places where we need to spend our time in prayer and ask for the grace that they both be renewed in Christ power.”  Living As Missionary Disciples: Encounter, Bishop Frank Caggiano, usccb.org, 2020.
3. Ibid.
4. Amoris Laetitia, §202, Pope Francis, 2016.