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Weekly Blog 10/25/20

Fr. Jeff and others share reflections on the Sunday readings.

Sunday, October 25, 2020

“‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’

He said to him,

‘You shall love the Lord, your God,

with all your heart,

with all your soul,

and with all your mind.

This is the greatest and the first commandment.

The second is like it:

You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”


A view from quarantine. 


What a difference a day makes. Having completed my preadmission testing on Wednesday, I was counting down to my third back surgery on October 21. I had met with the leadership team and operations team at St. Pats and with staff at St. Boniface. Details of ministry and administration in my absence were worked out. I still had a meeting with the Priests’ Council and Archbishop Kurtz on the agenda, but everything was falling in place. Some last minute communications and additional items needed to get done before I would go into the hospital and spend weeks in recovery, but I had a plan and was moving forward. I had a plan. What a difference a day makes. 


I woke up at about 6:00 am on Thursday (Oct 15). It was a little earlier than normal because, in addition to my usual prayer time, I wanted to get a few emails written and work on a document for a meeting later in the day. I had a headache, a little bit of a sore throat, and some tightness in my chest. I noticed some other aches and my initial resolve to press on, which is my usual response to illness, was put in check by the thought of our protocols around Covid-19. I took my temperature, as I do every morning, and I had a slight fever, but not above 100.4 (at that point). Still, I determined it was best to begin self-isolating and texted the deacons to see if one of them could cover morning Mass with a communion service. Deacon Greg was available and stepped up to help. I went through a drive through test as soon as they opened and, because those results weren’t supposed to be back for 48-72 hours, scheduled a rapid result test as soon as I could for Friday afternoon in Harrodsburg. I called my primary care doctor and the neurosurgeon to make them aware, see what else I should be doing, and discover what the implications might be for my surgery. My symptoms got worse and I spent much of the day sleeping. About an hour after the rapid result test on Friday, they called and let me know it was positive. About an hour after that, I got a text from the drive through test that that was also positive. So much for my plans. 


Little details can make a big difference. And what a difference a day makes. My plans were upended and, like so many couples I have worked with preparing for marriage, everything changed. While normal quarantine is for 10 days, I have to quarantine for at least 14 days and have two negative Covid-19 tests before surgery can be rescheduled. God’s will be done. I trust his providence. In light of this experience, though, I reflected on today’s Gospel. This is perhaps one of the sayings from the Gospels that we are most familiar with. Love God and love neighbor. It is the overarching summary of all the law and the prophets, the big picture of Jesus’s teachings. Yet, it is fleshed out in the details of each of our lives. In each encounter, decision, relationship, and moment, how do we respond to poverty, conflict, injustice, betrayal, need, illness, challenge, and change? As we respond in our concrete circumstances, love takes on flesh. Love is in the details. What difference does a day make? In love, it makes all the difference.