God and Covid-19

We are bereft of everything that had hitherto sheltered us and as a result we are losing our foothold. It is the collapse of my own religious world, of the world I am so accustomed to. We are bewildered by this pandemic to which there seems to be no end!

On the midnight of 1 October, it so happened that I was unusually preoccupied with thoughts concerning death. I lay awake looking heavenward ready to meet my Creator. And in an instant I realized that the pandemic had crept into my subconscious and was keeping me sleepless. And then, as if on cue, I find myself agonizingly reciting Psalm 43/44, “This befell us though we had not forgotten you…”

As the number of victims of the dreaded disease is increasing in India, I am worried about my own life and the life of so many of my fellow Indians. As a priest of the Church I wondered whether there would be Christian/Catholic families to come together and worship on Sundays ever! Will a life of faith now begin to appear to be a sham for the younger generation? Like all persons of faith I know that my faith and that of my fellow men and women is facing a serious crisis. The vital certainties that we had accepted without much difficulty have now begun to make us waver. This devastating fact has thrown my soul into deep anguish. Will this be the end of all our endeavours to live lives morally and spiritually upright, with our hearts turned to God to continue being socially caring for our unfortunate brothers and sisters? We are bereft of everything that had hitherto sheltered us and as a result we are losing our foothold. It is the collapse of my own religious world, of the world I am so accustomed to. We are bewildered by this pandemic to which there seems to be no end! It is easier to defend myself and my fellow-believers against open persecution rather than these hidden, interior forces of disintegration which, I fear, this pandemic is in the process of creating in our religious world and pervading religious imagination. The believing community is also worried about the present generation of young people: will the youth of today reject God altogether, and say ‘no’ to His omniscient presence?

God – in the time of Exile
Hardly had I finished enumerating what I experienced that sleepless night and all my preoccupations with death, than one of the friars drew my attention to the situation of the people of God in Babylon. Critical situations similar to ours have occurred in the history of humanity with a link to what we are experiencing namely, the period of spiritual crisis. It is worth recalling the way the Israelite leadership during the period of exile in Babylon managed this spiritual crisis encountered by the people in a foreign land, in the land of Babylon. About this Daniel reports: “We have at this time no leader, no prophet, no prince, no holocaust, no sacrifice, no oblation, no incense, no place where we can offer you the first fruits and win your favour…” (Dan 3:38-39).
The absence of the Temple did not matter to Daniel, precisely because he could and did pray even without a temple. He repeatedly went to his house which had windows in its upper room open toward Jerusalem, and he got on his knees three times a day to pray to his God and praise Him, just as he had done previously (Dan 6:10). Daniel found ways and means of being in touch with God.

Reduced to the essentials, faith becomes an adventure that links up with the great human endeavour. It is no longer something added or superimposed. The believer journeys with others in the same darkness of night. The believer finds himself more and more isolated in his/her faith, without external support from one’s surroundings.

God and Covid-19
Today, as in the days of Daniel, all the institutions that had framed and sustained people of faith have collapsed, even the most sacred. There are no longer priests as functionaries of institutions of the church, no more rituals around which we built our lives, devotions that families kept up as part of the family heritage. There are no more large scale prayer meets, fire and brimstone preaching and the happening of apparently easy miracles. There are only men and women left with the resources of their hearts. Today it is up to each one of us to keep our hearts open so that we both listen to and respond to what we hear. All this then applies very appropriately to our very existence! Our faith is being challenged in all kinds of life situations and we remain helpless spectators. What becomes of a person when he or she has lost everything even that which he or she held most sacred? How does one then live out one’s relationship with the world, with others, and with oneself? How can the darkest night become a moment of hope? Through what sort of metamorphosis?

Hidden Christians of Japan
Driven underground years ago, Japan's 'Hidden Christians' maintained their faith: they are known today as Japan's kakurekirishitan, or "hidden Christians". They have remained closeted for nearly 4 1/2 centuries — long after the threat of persecution had lifted.
Their religion transmuted into what is arguably a separate faith today, barely recognizable as the creed imported in the mid-1500s by Catholic missionaries, including the Spanish Jesuit Saint, Francis Xavier. While much of the teachings of the missionaries have been lost, these Japanese Christians have preserved the songs and their faith life in a form quite akin to what one might have heard in 16th century Spain. During the centuries of persecution, Christians in Japan had no church buildings, no clergy, no religious, no Mass, no religious institutions, no diocesan structures, and no contact with the rest of the Church in the country or outside.

Let me conclude with a quote from a monk: “All people are existentially oriented toward the Great Mystery of being. Sooner or later – when we experience the death of a good friend, when we fail, when we are confronted with illness and perhaps with our own death – questions arise, fundamental questions about our relationship to that Mystery, the Mystery of the divine” (David Steindl-Rast). That ‘Great Mystery’ no Pandemic can erase from the human heart!∎

Joy Prakash OFM is a scholar, writer and professor in Franciscanism and Spirituality.