Faith in time of Crisis

As I write this the country and the world find themselves in crisis as COVID 19 is spreading rapidly. More and more restrictions are being implemented by Governments in order to halt the spread of the virus. In line with Government restrictions the Irish Bishops Conference have made decisions as a collective and from this each Bishop instructed the parishes in their Diocese of what do to going forward. Before a case of COVID 19 was confirmed in Ireland the instructions were simple, no Holy Water was available in Holy Water Fonts, the Sign of Peace would not be shared by shaking hands, the Priest was to be the only one to receive from the Chalice and people were to receive Communion in the hand only. Then the situation in Ireland started to get worse as more people were being diagnosed with COVID 19. In light of this the Government announced restrictions on social gatherings and social distancing measures. With these restrictions Bishops started suspending the public celebration of Holy Mass. This suspension mainly concerned weekend Masses but here in Kildare and Leighlin like various other Dioceses, parishes suspended week day Masses too. I am still unclear if the advice of the Bishop was to suspend all public Masses or Parishes decided themselves to suspend week day Mass. I know about a handful of Parishes across the country who continued to celebrate Holy Mass during the week. My own parish suspended all Masses. I was blessed that I was able to get to Mass in a nearby parish the 1st Sunday after the Bishops made their recommendation to suspend Mass. For some reason I felt I really needed to be at Mass that Sunday, to join in community to pray for an end to this crisis. There was only about 2 dozen at the Mass and people were good at maintaining social distance. Unfortunately this was the last Holy Mass that I was able to attend in person. The monks in Bolton Abbey continued to celebrate daily Holy Mass. However, my energy levels were not great as my GP diagnosed me on the Monday with a throat infection and put me on antibiotics which left me fairly drained. Thanks to modern technology I like many others were able to tune in to Mass broadcast live online and on Television. So, we might not be able to attend Holy Mass in person but we can still participate in the celebration by tuning into webcams, Mass broadcasts on Facebook live or Holy Mass on RTE which is broadcast daily during this crisis.

At this time people can find it very difficult to have faith in God. Surprisingly my faith has not been shaken. If anything my faith is stronger than ever. In my eyes we need to have faith right now, we need to turn to God in prayer to get us through this crisis. I hate that people are getting sick with this and some are not surviving. However, we cannot blame God, God did not cause this crisis. I have not really been listening to the theories and reports around how this started but I can say with 100% certainty that God is not the cause of it. Humanity are becoming more and more selfish, greed drives mankind on. Blame mankind before you blame God. You might not believe in God but please, do not blame God. God does not punish, God does not cause harm.

Then there is another side of this. God did not cause COVID 19 but why is God not stopping the spread of the disease? When God created mankind He gave all the gift of free will. It is not for God to intervene just because He does not like what is happening. Mankind need to step up and do there bit to stop the spreed. If God was able to stop all the bad in the world with a click of His fingers or a wave of a wand what kind of world would that to be living in? We would not need to learn to stand up for ourselves and what we are passionate about! We would not have free will. God will help us through this crisis if we turn to Him. For Christians everywhere we need to join together in prayer. We might be in different houses, different counties and indeed different countries but that does nit stop us praying together. Even when we pray at different times when we pray we can be assured that we are not alone and our prayers are joined together.

In you Oh God I place my thrust, help us through this time of crisis. Should we get sick with this virus protect us from death. As we maintain our distance from others please Lord help us to maintain positive mental health, be with us in our lowliness. Be our shield and protector now and forever. Amen