Hope in the Midst of the Coronavirus Pandemic
How are you doing these days? Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the world seems to have changed overnight. I hope you are doing well. This is an extraordinary time that requires extraordinary faith, but we pray for God’s grace to help us through it all.
Do not be disheartened. Do not be afraid. Let the strength of God be with you today and your loved ones. May He guide us, provide for our needs and protect us from all evil and harm. Let us pray for one another in love.
Joyce
You may also want to read the articles below. I hope that by God’s grace, you may find in them some words of comfort and hope.
How Your Love Can Be Greater Than the Walls That Shut You In
The touch of love
Is there anything that could ever replace the touch of love? That kind of touch that radiates warmth, intimacy and compassion? That kind of touch that tells you that you are not alone?
In a world that has been seemingly changed overnight by a pandemic, this touch of love may become even rarer than we thought. Instead of shaking hands or greeting each other with a kiss, we wave our hands and make gestures from a distance. Instead of standing side by side, we are told to stand apart.
Wasn’t it enough that this modern world has created a structure where we need not see each other face to face anymore? Wasn’t it enough that we have been kept apart by our busy schedules and our self-reliant lifestyles? Now it seems that isolation would be the new norm, and communion but a memory of the good old days.
How could love survive in a world filled with things that divide us? How could love thrive in a world full of walls that shut us in?
In several places around the world, lockdown and quarantine have become words that seem to separate us already even in thought. We are no longer free to move where we will. We are no longer free to express affection the way we used to. All of a sudden, we find ourselves wearing masks and disinfecting our hands after each touch. Social gatherings are regulated, public places are controlled and the establishments where we used to gather are shut down.
When love sets your boundaries
I’m not saying that we should stop being cautious. I’m not saying that we become reckless and that we endanger each other’s lives.
Love must learn to control itself. Love must be wise enough to protect the one who is loved.
In a world that currently suffers from an invisible risk, love must be ever more cautious. It must learn to see far ahead to discern the right thing to do.
Love, after all, does not stop being love even when it wears a mask. Love must live from within and it cannot die simply by being hidden for a while.
Love must not be overcome by fear
Being wise, however, does not mean that one must be ruled by fear. Being cautious does not mean that we already disregard the things we value most in life.
Fear may alert us of danger, but panic merely draws us closer to peril. When we allow our fears to control us, we could no longer think and we could no longer act the way we should.
Fear exaggerates the measures we need to take in order to control the situation. Fear multiplies our troubles because it makes us run where we only need to walk.
How many times how we created the very situation that we feared? Instead of avoiding danger, we found ourselves running towards it. Instead of protecting our loved ones, our over-protectiveness has caused them harm.
We must be cautious but we should never forget the reason for our actions. We must never let our fears overcome our love.
Love finds a way
It may not be easy, but love will continue to find a way. It will stretch itself to think far and wide, trying to find a solution where many could see none. It will persevere even in the most hopeless of situations. It will keep its faith even when pushed towards the darkest corners of doubt.
Love specializes in overcoming barriers. It thrives in difficulties. It is purified by adversity. The more you try to oppress it, the more it struggles to be free.
When we love, our hearts expand in such a way as to contain more patience, more understanding and more kindness. It gets big enough to contain even pain, even suffering.
We become courageous in love and we are able to break down the barriers that shut us in.
We find a way. We think of a way to reach those whom we love so we can take care of them and protect them. We break free from our own comfort zones out of the depths of our love.
It is love that enables us to grow and to reach our fullest potential. We become who we were meant to be. We are freed from our self-imposed limitations and we find the freedom that only those who love could ever truly know.
Love beyond the power of touch
The human touch can express so much love that we find it almost impossible to think of anything else that could be its equal. There is so much power in a sincere hug from a friend, in a warm hand, in a gentle pat on the shoulder.
But what we must learn is that love is even more powerful than that. The reason why the touch of love is so powerful is that it has come from a heart that is full of compassion. It has come from a will that is pure, true and unwavering in its affection.
Love then has already existed even before one’s touch, and it will continue to exist even through distance, even through thick walls that threaten to divide us and isolate us.
True love has the power to reach out and make a way where there seems to be none. It is like the sun that can shine from millions of miles away, bringing life to all and sustaining us even when our hands are trembling and our hope is scarce.
“Mama’s love had always been the kind that acted itself out with soup pot and sewing basket. But now that these things were taken away, the love seemed as whole as before. She sat in her chair at the window and loved us. She loved the people she saw in the street– and beyond: her love took in the city, the land of Holland, the world. And so I learned that love is larger than the walls which shut it in.” — Corrie ten Boom
How Do You Practice Your Faith During the Risk of a Pandemic?
“The time is coming when I will send famine on the land. People will be hungry, but not for bread; they will be thirsty, but not for water.” — Amos 8:11, GNT
For the first time in years, I was not able to attend the weekly mass because of the Corona Virus pandemic. I was beyond surprised upon arriving at our local church and there were almost no people there. The main door was closed, the lights inside the church were not lit and there was no indication that a mass would be held there that morning. After some time, we were told that there would be no mass for at least a month’s time.
I was in denial. I couldn’t believe what I just heard and so my sister and I decided to visit another church nearby. To our big disappointment, it was also closed. And it was confirmed that all the churches in the country would not be celebrating mass for one month.
There used to be an abundance of masses held in the country. Masses were held in the streets. There were even masses held in shopping malls! But now, you can’t even attend one because the churches have been indefinitely closed.
I felt a certain pain within me, a certain hunger. I suddenly felt so hungry like I wanted to eat endlessly. I knew, however, that no matter how much I ate, my hunger would never be satisfied by earthly food.
At that moment, I didn’t know when I could ever receive communion again. Should I have received it more often when I still had the chance?
I don’t wish to think of the worst and I do hope that the pandemic threat would be over soon. But there’s a lot of uncertainty that keeps lingering in my mind.
How do you keep your faith alive in the time of pandemic? In a time when even receiving the sacraments of grace has been greatly limited?
I can still remember the last time I received communion. How could I have ever known it would be the last one before this pandemic? Sometimes, we can tend to think that God’s channels of grace would always be there. Now I know that they can be taken away at any moment. And therefore, each opportunity that we could ever have to receive them must never be taken for granted.
Masses are suspended even during this year’s Easter. How would we ever celebrate it this time without feeling the pain of what we have lost? Can it be that as a part of this year’s fast, we were meant to thirst for Jesus Himself so that in receiving Him again, we can better appreciate the great gift that we have been given?
Until then, we’d have to do with watching a televised mass together as I did this morning. It’s far different from attending a live gathering of people who worship God. It’s far different from receiving Jesus in the Eucharist. But maybe this sense of emptiness we feel could help us draw closer to one another in spirit. Perhaps it could help us yearn more deeply for God.
Our faith is being tested, but let us not be disheartened. We may not see each other in person, but we can pray as one people who continue to trust God despite the darkness of our time.
What can we do but wait ’til the night is over? What can we hold on to but prayer? And even though our prayers seem empty and dry, we still trust that the One who hears them lives! He is ever the same. He has sustained us in all our past woes, and He will carry us through though we may not know when, though we may not understand how, and though the only grace we feel is the strength to hold on for one moment more.
"Do you think the Lord has left you? He has gone away so we will find Him. He has gone away so we will seek Him." - Full of Grace (film)
“It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end… because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing… this shadow. Even darkness must pass.” – Samwise Gamgee (J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers)
An Act of Spiritual Communion
My Jesus,
I believe that You
are present in the Most Holy Sacrament.
I love You above all things,
and I desire to receive You into my soul.
Since I cannot at this moment
receive You sacramentally,
come at least spiritually into my heart. I embrace You as if You were already there and unite myself wholly to You. Never permit me to be separated from You.
Amen.
“And so I tell you, Peter: you are a rock, and on this rock foundation I will build my church, and not even death will ever be able to overcome it.” - Matthew 16:18, GNT
