My heart is heavy as I consider the hundreds of people who die of the coronavirus each day. This day, 2000+ years ago Mary stood beneath the cross of her dying son. Now, in 2020, she stands beneath the cross of so many of her sons and daughters dying of this horrible disease and grieves with the parents, siblings, sons and daughters, grandchildren and other relatives and friends of those losing their lives to this virus. She knows the sorrows of each, as she herself is no stranger to sorrow!
Just as Mary could do nothing but stand and watch, so, too, family members can do nothing either but stand and watch a loved one die. And in many cases can not even do that, as they are not allowed by the bedside of the sick person!
God, too, knows our sorrow and grieves with us! Why, we ask, doesn't God remove this scourge from the face of the earth? Why did he not stop the crucifixion of His only begotten son? Perhaps the answer to that question is the same answer. Our salvation depended upon Jesus being obedient to God unto death. Jesus, we are told in the Scriptures, learned obedience from what He suffered! Are we, too, to learn obedience to God from what we suffer? Are we, in fact, suffering this horrible virus because of the many, many times that we walked away from the challenges of surrendering to God's way of living here on earth? Have we made serious mistakes that led to this pandemic?
Jesus, we know, did not make any serious mistakes while He walked, lived, taught among us here on earth. His honesty, His confrontation of evil, His building the Kingdom of love and peace that He was sent to build, His healing of the sick, His driving out of demons, His way of challenging the people to live the spirit of the law and to realize that the letter of the law can, at times, kill led the chief priests, the scribes or teachers of the law as well as the leaders and elders of the nation to feel threatened by Him and jealous of Him and therefore were determined to destroy Him, which they did on the first Good Friday 2000+ years ago!
Jesus, may the crisis which we are now experiencing because of the spread of this virus be a wake up call for us. May our eyes be opened to the fact that, like you, none of us will escape death however it comes to us. However, may we also realize that death is not the end of our life but the beginning of a new resurrected life in heaven with You. I ask for these graces in your name. Amn
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