Ministers to the homebound are truly extraordinary

by Michael Podrebarac

Last time, I wrote of being hungry for having had to miss Sunday Mass due to the weather. I hope sharing about my experience encouraged everyone to discover just how hungry for the Bread of Life we can become when we fail — through uncontrollable circumstance or conscious choice — to miss our place at the sacrificial banquet of the very Lamb of God.

I was reminded, after that column was printed, about a column I wrote just after our churches began to reopen following the heights of the COVID pandemic now five years ago. In that column, I likened our inability to participate in holy Mass during those weeks to the ongoing inability of our brothers and sisters who are homebound to ever attend Mass and receive holy Communion within the liturgy itself. For me, the pandemic was a sobering reminder of how much we can take for granted when we have free access to stores, theaters, schools and also to churches. Please God, we will never see those days again.

But our homebound still live in a perpetual quarantine, no longer able to access any of these places except perhaps (for some) on the rarest of occasions.

And so, what a tremendous blessing are those men and women who, out of solicitude for their homebound fellow Catholics, serve the apostolate by visiting them and bringing them holy Communion. Homebound ministers, as they are most often called, serve as a living bridge between the parish church and those members unable to attend Mass due to advanced age or illness.

Of course, they are extraordinary in their ministry of holy Communion, but ask many a pastor how able he would be, practically, to visit each week each of the homebound faithful within his parish, and you’d understand that these ministers are indeed extraordinary, and in many ways.

Speaking with one of these dedicated workers of the lay apostolate just this past week, she shared what it’s like to serve these “old-timers” as she reverently calls them (she just turned 80 herself). She described how happy these folks are to “receive Jesus” as well as to simply receive a few moments with someone who cares for them, beyond their dedicated family members and committed residence workers. And even those who, in their advanced conditions, are unable to communicate as others are, express their gratitude through the squeezing of a hand or a simple, repeated, “Thank you.”

“For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat” (Mt  25:35). Ministers to the homebound fulfill Our Lord’s words in extraordinary ways, by being extraordinary ministers to those whose hungers are extraordinary.

I take this time to say to each of you, dear homebound ministers: Thank you.