A few thoughts on the coronavirus pandemic.

Unless you’re living under a rock, you know the new “coronavirus” is spreading at an amazing rate across the globe and things are getting a bit scary.  I gather that while influenza kills more people overall, this virus is deadly to a higher percentage of those who actually contract it.  Still, most people who catch this virus do recover.  For many, it’s not even that big of a deal.  The problem, it seems, is that when a huge number of people become infected, even a small percentage of people having a very bad time with the virus, or dying from it, adds up to a lot of casualties.  So this is a very big deal.

As you know, precautions are being taken.  While these precautions may be prudent, necessary, and effective to a degree, they also have the effect of heightening our anxiety.  No public Masses allowed in Rome!  When was the last time that happened?  Ever?  No travel is allowed from Europe or China.  NBA games have been cancelled.  The litany of cancellations and quarantines is startling.  And people are reacting.  There’s panic buying of toilet paper (of all things, why!?), hand sanitizer, and so on, even right here in our ND cities.  The stock market has been dropping like a rock.  Oil prices are falling as well.  Even without the specter of a dangerous virus, these things are very troubling.  What makes it worse, I think, is that even if we believe this will pass in a few months, it might shake our confidence in the things we rely upon for survival or which we usually take for granted.  Will there always be food and other items on the shelves of our stores?  Will we be able to travel freely?  Will we be able to live our lives, interacting with people, without fear of illness?  Is modern medicine up to the task of keeping us safe?  We aren’t so sure anymore.

It’s bad.  But it’s not all bad.  This set of circumstances has a bright side, too.  It may help us to remember our mortality, to prepare for our real life in eternity, and remind us of where we ought to look for strength.  At Mass today (Thursday of 2nd week of Lent), we heard from Jeremiah 17, which I found consoling: If circumstances cause you anxiety in life, turn to the Lord.  Trust that the Lord never allows anything that we cannot handle with his grace, anything that is not somehow for our ultimate good when endured with faith.

Remember, too, that like that tree planted beside running waters, we ought to keep ourselves near the waters of God’s grace, especially as it flows through the sacraments of the Church.  If you need God’s forgiveness, don’t wait to receive it in Confession.  If you or a loved one becomes seriously ill in any way please call me, or any Catholic priest, for the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick.  Do it sooner rather than later.  In addition, we must stay close to God in prayer.  We must build that relationship with God now so we are not strangers when we encounter a crisis or are facing our own deaths.  We do not want to meet Jesus when we die and hear him say, “I never knew you; depart from me” (Mt 7:23)!  And when death does approach, as it does for us all someday, remember that we are made for heaven, not this earth. 

The world is going crazy right now.  But God is with us.  There’s no reason to panic.  Let us stay in his good graces and draw strength from him.  As we heard in Thursday’s Psalm response, “Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.”  Amen!  Let us put our hope first and foremost in the Lord.

-Fr. Jason Signalness