Question of the Week: With death looming all around, how does faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ prepare you to meet it? What does Jesus ask of us?
On this Easter, I want to thank my brother, and faithful priest- Fr Lew Eberhart who is on the front lines in helping those up at U-M Hospital who have this terrible virus. He joins the many other health care professionals who are risking their lives to help the sick. Dear God please bless them all and may the Risen Lord keep them all safe!
Jesus out the tomb tells us– “Be not afraid.” Jesus told his Apostles, “in this world, you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world.” Indeed He has! The Lord is Risen, He is truly Risen, Alleluia! We do take heart, because Jesus reminds us that He is alive and we are alive in Him.
Like all of you as I imagine, I have been thinking much about the Coronavirus. A virus is not alive. At best, it is an imitation of life. Now, our Good and Almighty Father, in His providence has a place for viruses I am sure. They are a part of this world which is indeed groaning and in travail, awaiting the revelation of the children of God. There are many things about viruses that we do not currently understand. What we do understand though is that they bring us harm. In many ways, it can seem that the enemy of humanity has somehow got a hold of a part of nature and bent it to evil purpose. My father, who served as a pediatrician for over 55 years recalled a lecture from medical school, where the professor at the time began to discuss an unknown pathogen, not a bacteria, but capable of causing human illness, that at that point had yet to be identified. He told the medical students that it would one day–but as of that time, it remained mysterious.
Viruses are very small. You cannot see them under normal microscopes. The polio virus, for example, is about 10,000 times smaller than a grain of salt. A virus contains information within it that allows it to hijack whatever cell it infects. It gets the cell and its inner workings to make more of the virus, which then spreads exponentially throughout the infected person. Its mechanism takes what is good and bends it for its own purposes. In a sense, it “possesses” the cell. And what about the name “virus” itself? According to the dictionary, “the word comes from late Middle English (denoting the venom of a snake): from Latin, literally ‘slimy liquid, poison’. The earlier medical sense, superseded by the current use as a result of improved scientific understanding, was ‘a substance produced in the body as the result of disease, especially one capable of infecting others’.”
How apt is that? Yes- venom of a snake… capable of infecting others… bringer of illness and death… like one of the four riders in the Book of Revelation. In the case of the Coronavirus, in order to avoid it, we also must separate from each other.
And for us as Christians, that as of late has taken us from the Sacraments. This is most bitter for us all. Yet, we remember what Jesus went through. He knew the suffering and death that lay before Him, yet He said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I shall raise it up (Jn 2:19)” In one sense, our “temple” has been destroyed… our place of worship, our coming together as God’s family has been taken from us. But Jesus has not been taken! He is not in the tomb but alive in His Body the Church.
The Church is you and me and all who believe in Christ, and He is alive in us and we are alive in Him. We are inoculated by His grace, vaccinated by the Holy Spirit at Baptism. His love will continue to animate us– and continue to raise up an eternal Temple made of living stones, with Christ Jesus as the Cornerstone! We must continue to be His Church, His Body during this time of crisis. Remember every home is a domestic Church. We have an opportunity right now to be even stronger as God’s family. We are forced to connect through social media like never before. OK. This is new for a lot of us (except for our younger generation where this is so normal!) God wants us to take back social communication.
The Church used to be present in a good way in social communications: print, radio, TV. Bishop Fulton Sheen used to have a prime time television show that millions watched. There were others. Now, we have an opportunity to connect and use social media for good purposes like never before. And we will. We will find new ways to connect with each other and encourage each other –and we will not only get through this– but will be even stronger than before. Believe it! Live it! The Lord is Risen! He is Risen Indeed. Alleluia.
God Bless You, Fr. Bill