God in a Pandemic

Existence in this world unfolds episodes of certain uncertainties in due course. Wherein, the whole cosmos experiences the consequence, and its dynamics transcend the human rationale. One may justify even the phenomenology of the galaxy. But when it comes to the souls, "The Fallen Creature" because of its misuse of 'freewill', is conditioned time and again to be submissive in humility, to be adhering in faith and to be pragmatic in love. Presently, in this episode of covid pandemic, we the 'brainy race' are persistently baffled, because in every ways it has affected our facilitating lifestyle. This pandemic is deadly because, it is directly affecting the body- which is the chariot of all the pleasures of this world. On the contrary, tracing back in the human history, the greatest of all pandemics which inflicted the human souls is- "Sin". This seemingly virtual pandemic serves probably as the gene for all the succeeding catastrophes. And these pandemic episodes are the prime time to understand the Will of God in our lives.

The Will of God is significant in the economy of our being. God created everything in an order or rhythm. Be it the rotation of planets around the Sun, be it the respirations, everything has its order. Even a slight change in this order will have its consequences. The moment when the order, the relation between God and the human disturbed through disobedience and wickedness of the latter, there was a substantial fall in the original human nature. The creation created in the image of the eternal Absolute became subject to mortality. And to restore the fallen ones, God willed to take the mortal form. Through the incarnation, God Himself communicated with the humankind and through His economy, rendered the sanguinity of salvation of souls to the mortal beings. The ultimate Will of God is the redemption of creation and restore its order and rhythm. That's why the passion of Christ was significant in God's own Will. Christ as the perfect blameless human sacrificed Himself to reconcile the whole creation to God the Father. It is the one Will of God in action. Thus in St. Luke 22:42 we read, Christ saying- “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet, not my will but yours be done.” The disobedience which distorted the relation then, is rectified and idealized through the obedience of Christ on the Cross. God's Will remained the same when He Himself was suffering for the fallen world! That is the sacrificial love. And that is why He is God! No pandemic would be a curse of havoc then, when God suffered to redeem. God's Will is active in reordering the universe. A temporal lockdown for the eternal freedom, provided the human conscience realise the real lies of this deceiving world and live sensibly with all the spiritual traits.

On a serious note, does a pandemic reorders the universe? How is God acting in such pandemics? The human life running after sole pursuit of health, career, wealth, comforts and fame resembles a flowing muddy river. Whereas when the same muddy river becomes still and some impurities get sedimented, water gets cleansed and more transparent. Similarly, we need a period of being still, to sediment and subside from our vain pursuits and to emerge with spiritual transparency. The pandemic episode galvanizes us to be still and to practice controlled lifestyle. In the absence of dominating human outside, the environment prepares itself for a sensible steward. On the other hand, the most saddening experience is the life of the victims of pandemic. How can we justify the cost of life of those people? There we ought to understand the Will of God's economy. God didn't suffer that we may have a comfort life and die peacefully, rather that our souls might be saved for an eternal life. Death is an aperture experience into the sanguinity of the eternal life. Death is not the end. And that is why these catastrophic episodes are called pandemic and not endemic. We the image bearers of God are participating in His earthly ministry! God's ministry has not finished with His ascension to heaven. God's ministry is dynamic. It is alive through us.

God's intervention can be understood through a paradigm in Jesus' parable of good Samaritan (Lk. 10: 25-37). A certain lawyer asks Jesus, how to inherit eternal life? Jesus to his subsequent question of- "who is my neighbour?", tells this parable. A man travelling from Jerusalem to Jericho was attacked by some robbers. In his state of helplessness, certain people passed by seeing his plight, showing no acts of empathy. Even the priest didn't thought of taking care of him. But it was a Samaritan who had pity on him and took care of him and entrusted him to safer hands and assured to visit back and check on his plight. Even when the Jews and the Samaritans had no good terms in between them, the Samaritan had pity on the victim and did all possible help to him. In this parable, the man attacked resembles the pandemic victim. There are many who are battling with their lives, victimized by the pandemic. We all are the fellow beings in God's image. Even though we are not priests by vocation, by nature we are the chosen ones, royal priesthood and Holy nation (1 Peter 2:9), so we ought to reflect serving mentality. Serving others is serving God, as Jesus says in Mt. 25:40 - "Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me." In this parable the Samaritan was the one who was a priest from inside. The one who was an icon of Christ. 

In the present covid pandemic, aren't all the frontline workers an icon of Christ, rendering selfless service to the victims and the community? They have their priorities but empathise with the victims' life priority. They have their families, but spend days and nights serving the victims that they could rejoin their families. They risk their lives so as to make this world a better place to dwell in. And all these are possible only when they have acquired the very mind of Christ, His humility, His servanthood. As St. Paul exhorts in Philippians 2: 1-11, "...Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus..." Thus these frontline workers and many such volunteers are participating in the earthly ministry of Jesus, to restore the peace and order. So do we have the icons of God in every pandemic!

Jesus highlights the importance of being merciful to one another. In the Christian life, Mercifulness is synonomical to forgiveness of sins! In many of Jesus' miracles, after the needy pleads for mercy, Jesus would heal the person and say- "sin no more". In this advancing age, we should thrive to combat the seemingly virtual pandemic 'sin' and make every efforts of being merciful to one another, being an icon of Christ and thus reflect God in and through us for the promise of eternal life, enduring the fading sting of pandemic in Hope, Faith and Love!

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Br. Jipson Thomas,
STOTS,
Ahmedabad Diocese