Missionary Families of Christ
At the end of the session, the participants will be able to:
I. Introduction
Most of us doesn’t want to study history. We see this subject as nothing but an endless memorization of names, dates and events. This is the reason why most of us find history as a useless endeavor. Yet, what most of us fail to realize is that history has a way of revealing to us who we are as a people and is very powerful in showing us the way we think, speak and act as a people.
This is the reason why I believe that it is important for us to look at our Christian history and see how our brothers and sisters that had gone ahead of us look at the different events that is happening in their lives.
II. Facing a Pandemic
Today we are experiencing an unfortunate yet very significant historical event. We are experiencing a pandemic. The last time the world has experience a pandemic was in 2009 when we were hit by the H1N1 virus, today we are experiencing the plague of COVID-19.
This virus has cause pain, suffering and death to a lot of people. This virus has changed the way we live our lives. It has forced our Churches to be closed and has prevented us from receiving the sacraments. It has cause great difficulty in our temporal and spiritual lives. We find this virus so difficult to carry that it made me think on how does Christians before has faced sickness and plagues that was there during their time?
A. Sickness and Plagues
If you look at history and even in scriptures, we knew that since time in memorial man has always experience sickness and plagues. If this is the case it made me think how did the early Christians Communities see plagues during their time? I am convinced that in all aspect and events of their lives they have seen it through the eyes of faith!
” For we walk by faith and not by sight” 2 Corinthians 5:7
Just like what St. Paul told the Corinthians they have seen plagues through the eyes of faith that is why the way they reacted to it is very different from how the pagans reacted to it.
B. Seeing Plagues in the Eyes of Faith
Christianity grew because the early Christians has never stop in spreading the Gospel and in taking care of the sick during the plagues. – Rodney Stark
According to Rodney Start a leading American sociologist, there are a lot of evidence that shows that Christians before were able to take care of the sick and spread the faith during plagues. They did it with great courage and joy in their heart. This is because they see plagues as an opportunity to testify God’s love to the world. They see it as a way for them to show Christian charity and preach the Good News! This is because during plagues they see it as:
1. A Call to Return to God
“Come, let us return to the LORD. For He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bandage us.” Hosea 6:1-6
We are most susceptible to God during trying times. Such that God allows the most difficult moment in our lives for us to speak to us, to make His presence felt among us. This is how the early Christian communities sees plagues, an opportunity to go back to God.
I believe that this pandemic is God’s way of calling our attention that we have been far away from Him. Our world is living in a way that is has rejected God! We are living in a world where Secularism, Modernism, and Apostasy is rampant. That is why God is calling us back to Him.
Now that we are in is the pandemic let us asses ourselves as well how far away are, we from God. Now is the perfect time to make our families and friends to see how we all have been far away from God
2. A Call to Repentance
“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14
This virus is serious! It is killing people. But the real tragedy is not that just because it caused physical deaths, but that people are dying in their sin. It is the spiritual death that is caused by sin and the continuing lack of repentance of people who can die because of this virus that should be our real concerns as Christians. This is how early Christian communities sees plagues. They don’t want people to die in their sins that is why as they take care of the sick, they proclaim the Good News to them so that it might lead them into repentance.
Now that we are in this pandemic, we are in a perfect time to talk about God’s love and mercy that will lead people to repentance. We should see it as an opportunity for people to hear the Word of God so that they won’t just live but be truly alive in Him.
3. A Call for Renewal
“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” Romans 12:2
This Pandemic is God’s way of Chastisement to us his people and God use Chastisement to lead us into repentance and renewal. Just like how a father discipline a son to save him from his wrong ways, God too is chastising us so that we can renew the way we lived our lives. This is how early Christian communities sees plagues.
Now that we are in this pandemic, it is also the perfect time for us to confess our sins to the Lord and ask for his mercy and change our ways.
This is how Christians before see the plagues through the eyes of faith. It is a time to return to God, a time for repentance and a time for renewal. And because of that they have reacted differently from pagans.
C. Heroes of Faith in Time of Plagues
Just to prove how an authentic fool’s for Christ our brothers and sisters before during plagues let me share to you the story of two great saints of our Church.
1. St. Gregory the Great
When the plague was in Rome in 590 and St. Gregory was still a deacon, he organized procession to take place in Rome wherein seven groups would hold processions through the streets of the city and ending at the basilica of Mary Major to ask for the Virgin’s Mary protection. The seven processional groups were: the clergy, abbots and monks, abbesses and nuns, men, married women, widows and children. The processions took place on April 25, 590.
The reason for the processions was because he sees the plague as chastisement of God for sinfulness, and therefore to ask the Lord for His mercy and to show to the people that God is still with them, he led this procession. During this procession they saw St Michael the Archangel with a flaming sword standing on top of Hadrian’s Mausoleum (which is today known as Castel Sant’Angelo) and he sheathed it when the procession approached, which was to signify that God had seen how the people had repented and show His mercy. In that moment the plague stopped, and the people thank God.
2. St. Charles Borromeo
The plague that struck Milan and other nearby towns in Lombardy during 1575–1576 is now known as “the plague of Saint Charles”. In less than two months 6,000 people had died. The Archbishop of Milan St. Charles Borromeo, unlike the civil authorities and notables, did not abandon the city. The Archbishop closed all the churches and he built altars outside them, to give the opportunity to the faithful to attend mass even from their homes. He introduced the “Practice of Forty Hours” that consisted of the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament that was exposed in the entrance for forty hours outside. He asked for volunteers to help the population. He donated a lot of his clothes and church tapestries to the people in need and he organized processions to console the people infected.
IV. Called to Save Souls
During this pandemic, Pope Francis urged priests not to stay as “spectators” as the pandemic continues, but to increase their visits to individual homes, while taking all the necessary precautions to avoid contagion. He said that “otherwise pastas and pizzas will be delivered to houses but not communion for those who want it because they are elderly, sick or in need. Supermarkets, newspaper shops and tobacco shops will be open, but not the churches,” he said, noting that the government has a duty to guarantee the health and material support of the people, “but we have the duty to do the same for souls.”
Brothers and sisters, not everyone is called to be in the frontlines spiritually like the priest, nun and religious to take care of the sick and proclaim the Good News. But that doesn’t give us an excuse not to do our part in saving souls. We too, have a duty to save souls during this time and I believe that the best way we can do it is by:
A. Prayer
Now that we are in quarantine let us not waste this moment not to grow in our prayer life. Let us take this time to deepen our personal relationship with God. Let us also take this time to intercede for the frontlines, for the sick, and for those who have died. Let us take this time to pray for the world’s repentance and renewal. Let us beg the Lord for his mercy to stop this virus and bring healing and renewal into our land.
B. Penance
Now that we are in quarantine let us not waste our experience of sufferings and hardship by offering it to the Lord for the forgiveness of sins. Let us make our fasting and sacrifices a blessing to the world by offering it to God for healing and renewal. Let us offer our good deeds to be a blessing for the world.
C. Proclaim
Now that we are in quarantine let us not waste the opportunity to find creative means to share the Good News to the world. Let us keep on proclaiming God’s love and mercy that may lead people into repentance and renewal. Let us never stop in finding way to do our mission by evangelizing people for the renewal of the world.
Let us make this moment of quarantine a moment of grace for all of us. This is rightly so because this quarantine that we are into also falls in the time of Quaresma (lent). As the government implement quarantine to isolate ourselves for the next 40 days to save our physical bodies. Let us also take this moment of Quaresma to isolate ourselves to the world so that we can save our souls.
V. Conclusion
“This illness is not to end in death, but is for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” John 11: 4
Just like what Jesus said to his disciples before he raised back to life Lazarus, that this virus will not end to our death but for the glory of God to be seen through it. Let us remember that God is in control and He has a plan so let us trust Him. May we see this quarantine as a way for people to see God and may we be the instrument that will make it happen.