On March 11, 2020, Archbishop Etienne suspended the public celebration of Mass in our Archdiocese due to the emerging COVID-19 pandemic. He was the first bishop in the country to take this step, but he was quickly followed by every other bishop in the country. It was a shocking, though necessary, move that rocked us to our very core. I will always remember where I was when I heard about the planes on Sept. 11, 2001, and I will always remember where I was when I heard that Masses were shut down on March 11, 2020.
I recently re-watched my Facebook video communications from that first month of shutdown and it brought back a whole wave of feelings and memories. I remembered the chaos and panic of the first few days, as we tried to figure out how to communicate with our parishioners, celebrate Mass, and maintain some level of prayer and community. I remembered the very odd silence, as the streets of Bellingham emptied out and I began celebrating Masses and liturgies alone in the sacristy and the church.
But above everything else, I remembered and deeply appreciated the love that permeated those first few weeks. Even amidst the panic and confusion, I and the parish staff felt such a love for our parishioners, such a desire to help them make sense of this crisis and to remain connected to Jesus and the Church. Our parishioners felt an incredible love for our parish, for the Mass, for the Eucharist, for even the small things we were able to do online in those early days; and they made incredible sacrifices to make sure our finances stayed stable. And our parishioners felt an incredible love for each other, calling each other, supporting each other’s businesses, doing errands for each other.
A lot has happened in the last year, and much of that early goodwill has been replaced in the public discourse with disagreement and animosity, with a politicization of this pandemic. But re-watching those videos reminded me of how proud I was and am of our parish community. When the entire world collapsed, we came together. Over the course of this year, so many of us have grown in our spiritual lives and our relationship with Jesus and the Mass. I hope that as we mark this very strange anniversary, we can remember who we were and who we are, so that we can aspire to continue to be those loving, Christian people – loving God and loving each other, no matter how hard things get.
Fr. Moore 