Here's another reflection from a Catholic writer, shared to me by a pro-family activist in the United Kingdom, in the midst of the Coronavirus crisis.
Lockdown
Yes there is fear.
Yes there is isolation.
Yes there is panic buying.
Yes there is sickness.
Yes there is even death.
But,
They say that in Wuhan after so many years of noise
You can hear the birds again.
They say that after just a few weeks of quiet
The sky is no longer thick with fumes
But blue and grey and clear.
They say that in the streets of Assisi
People are singing to each other
across the empty squares,
keeping their windows open
so that those who are alone
may hear the sounds of family around them.
They say that a hotel in the West of Ireland
Is offering free meals and delivery to the housebound.
Today a young woman I know
is busy spreading fliers with her number
through the neighbourhood
So that the elders may have someone to call on.
Today Churches, Synagogues, Mosques and Temples
are preparing to welcome
and shelter the homeless, the sick, the weary
All over the world people are slowing down and reflecting
All over the world people are looking at their neighbours in a new way
All over the world people are waking up to a new reality
To how big we really are.
To how little control we really have.
To what really matters.
To Love.
So we pray and we remember that
Yes there is fear.
But there does not have to be hate.
Yes there is isolation.
But there does not have to be loneliness.
Yes there is panic buying.
But there does not have to be meanness.
Yes there is sickness.
But there does not have to be disease of the soul
Yes there is even death.
But there can always be a rebirth of love.
Wake to the choices you make as to how to live now.
Today, breathe.
Listen, behind the factory noises of your panic
The birds are singing again
The sky is clearing,
Spring is coming,
And we are always encompassed by Love.
Open the windows of your soul
And though you may not be able
to touch across the empty square,
Sing.
Fr. Richard Hendrick, OFM
March 13th 2020
There is a restoration of all that is good. God's creation is breaking forth once again.
"Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution
of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets
since the world began." (Acts 3:21)
God is bringing forth His goodness, no longer allowing a corrupt world of arrogant peoples, more interested in their own satisfaction than the good which God provides freely to all who will believe:
"31What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us,
who can be against us? 32He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up
for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" (Romans 8:31-32)
God has indeed hit the pause button. God had to hit the pause button for His people the Israelites when they continously violated His commandments, specifically with idol worship and violation of the Sabbath rests. The Israelites were carried away captive to Babylon for seventy years for this reason.
"20And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia: 21To fulfil the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years." (2 Chronicles 36:20-21)
The world is weary, filled with its own worries, words, and works. They need to look to the One who made all things, The One who holds all things together (Colossians 1:17).
The world needs to rest, and they need to rest in Him!
"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." (Matthew 11:28)
Those who believe on Him have entered the rest:
"3For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world." (Hebrews 11:3)
This rest is the most important labor, and the greatest fear anyone in the world should have is ... not entering into His rest:
"10For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. 11Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief." (Hebrews 4:10-11)
This naturally-induced lockdown is forcing humanity, forcing the world to quiet down, to calm down.
Mankind needs to put their heads down and remember that we did not make ourselves (Psalm 100:3)
