Faith mask

The story is told that if the Resurrection were to happen during these days, an angel would have stopped Jesus from coming out of the tomb because it was not safe to go out due to COVID-19.

In today’s Gospel (Jn. 21, 1-14), the disciples were infected by the virus of fear, sadness, and even mediocrity. The once brave fishers of men have gone back to being normal fishermen. Why? Because they have forgotten their faith mask.

Please use your face mask to shield you from the deadly virus, and please use your faith mask to shield you from fear and despair, and lead you to prayer, the source of strength and hope during these times of trials and tribulations.

By the way, our face mask is not meant to shield us from involvement with the suffering around us. On the contrary, faith must lead us to solidarity, compassion, generosity, and charity. Question: Aside from prayers, what have you given to help others in terms of time, talent, and treasure? Pray: Disturb us, Lord, when our quarantine has become comfortable, detached, and routine.

“I’m in your heart.” This was the Lord’s message to me as I meditated before an empty tabernacle last Good Friday morning. With the churches empty and silent these days, let us go back to our hearts, and there find Him, and find our true selves again, and find ourselves reaching out to others again.

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Today is Divine Mercy Sunday. God is calling us all through the present day events to go back to Him. We bow our heads, we bend our knees, and humbly pray: “Have mercy on me, O God, I am a sinner.” Together with Sister Faustina, we pray: “Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world.” Each one of us, and the whole world, needs conversion, a fresh start, and a new beginning.

It is through trials that God purifies us so that we will become more pure, and refines us so that we will become more fine.

“If God puts you through it, He will get you through it” (Cor. 10, 13). With faith, we believe that God is in control, He has a plan and a timetable, and He will see us through COVID-19 and all.

People ask: “When will this end, so that we can go back to normal again?” When? We don’t know. It seems that God is not through yet fixing us and the whole world. We need a lot of fixing, and we cannot fix ourselves by ourselves anymore. Back to normal? No, we are not going back to normal after this stretch of our journey. A new world order is evolving, and hopefully, for all of us, a new way of being, and a new way of doing things together, as one.

Someone said that it took Moses and the chosen people 40 years to reach the promised land, when in fact, they could have done so in a year or less (Egypt is not that far from Judea!). What took them so long? Because there were many in the entourage who were proud, disobedient, stiff-necked, selfish, and greedy. There were opportunists, complainers, “nega stars,” and bashers. They slowed down the journey.

A moment with the Lord:Lord, help us to walk this difficult journey we are in today with faith in our hearts, and together, as one. Amen.

jorbos@inquirer.com.ph