By Fr. Glenn Jones:
“Beware the ides of March!”, Shakespeare places on the lips of Caesar’s soothsayer. You might think that Shakespeare had some insight into 2020 with this coronavirus thing. It’s interesting—and most humbling—how a microscopic thing can bring the macro human world almost to its knees. The mightiest man … the most beautiful woman … the most powerful politician—little difference to a little virus. It spits its short little genetic code into a cell … that cell becoming a virus factory (imagine a document taking over your copier). Wash, rinse, repeat, goes the cycle ‘til our heroes—white blood cells—charge into the fray.
One thing of note is that the recent stories (and eyewitness) of the stockpiling of food and necessities demonstrate to us most starkly how tenuous are our daily lives. For instance, going on a 6:15 a.m. run to the neighborhood market, I thought: “Surely shelves should be stocked … things should be slow … this morning; it’s Saturday, after all. Wrong. Wasn’t too bad when I arrived, but thronged by the time I left just 20 minutes later. Sheesh!
In our society we tend to live fairly comfortable and secure lives, and so newly-experienced uncertainty breeds fear, and fear breeds … more fear, even though we know that “fear profits a man nothing”. No more, I think, will we chuckle at the Great Depression generation who would hoard almost anything in their “waste not, want not” philosophy. With even toilet paper harder to find than leftover cupcakes at a daycare, we’ve come to understand those old-timers a bit better.
The number of coronavirus cases gradually ticks up, and yet that gradualness is hopefully a good sign, pointing toward the hope that people may be taking things seriously and practicing the hygiene and social distancing which is repeatedly emphasized ad nauseam by authorities and medical experts. Repeated, but necessary.
Such is a portion of the societal team effort that will eventually assist in bringing this situation closer to its end. And while uncertainty breeds fear, we mustn’t let that fear overwhelm civility and care for one another, remembering that “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.” (1 John 4:18) After all, the real test of one’s character and the character of a society is the behavior during adversity, or when doubt and uncertainty tempt toward fear. Indeed, “civilization” depends upon us being “civil” and unselfish with one another, as St. Paul writes: “Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.” (Philippians 2:4)
Thus God commands us to love and to care for each other, as St. Paul says in another place: “…love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.” (Romans 13:8) Jesus Himself said: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” (John 13:34) And just how much did Jesus love all—and each—of us? We need only gaze upon a crucifix to behold it.
Certainly we can choose to digress—de-evolve, so to speak—toward animalistic selfishness, or we can be truly human—seeking the good of the many over myopic self-centeredness. After all, what does it mean to be “in-human” but to be cruel, selfish, uncaring. Without feeling for the other?
So leave that yet another super mega pack of toilet paper for someone else—maybe the elderly couple hoping to just survive the gauntlet of raucous shoppers, or the pregnant single mother with two little ones in tow who just got off work from her crummy job. As teammates support one another on the field or on the court, let us support one another even to self-sacrifice, looking toward the finish and helping one another along the way, for the victory of each contributes to the victory of all … the defeat of one contributes to the defeat of all.
People inevitably ask in these sorts of situations: “Is this a trial/punishment/plague from God?” Well … no one can really say; maybe yes, maybe no. But for anyone to claim to know God’s thoughts and plans is the height of arrogance, forgetting: “…my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9)
Yet whatever trial we endure, we also remember that God’s ultimate plan is for our eternal good, not necessarily our temporal good. Virtue, not wealth and ease or material security, is what He calls us to. For instance, if a trial or hardship leads an evil person towards repentance and conversion to the good and to the salvation God offers to all, then the hardship was really a gift in disguise. Likewise, our helplessness when confronted with such trials helps to center us toward the things that truly matter: family, friends, and living a good and holy life. And so we remember St. Paul again: “…if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God…[so] I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” (Romans 8:13-18) Have a good—and peaceful—week.
“Though the fig tree do not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. GOD, the Lord, is my strength…” (Habakkuk 3:17-19)
Rev. Glenn Jones is the Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and former pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Los Alamos.
