27 March 2020 . “But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!”” (Luke 4:35)

The Coronavirus Pandemic reminds as of the illnesses of the Old Testament such as leprosy that we hear about taking over the bodies of their inhabitants. These illnesses used to force people into self-isolation and they would drive people away from the society that they lived in for fear of contamination and spread. Today we are witnessing the same self-isolation because of the Coronavirus and its ability to be carried from one person to another. In the olden days, the people believed that these illnesses were punishment from God. However, after Jesus revealed to us the love and mercy of his heavenly Father, we can no longer believe that our Father in heaven would punish us in such a way. Sadly, many people still believe that this is the case and that God is punishing us through this virus. If we read today’s Gospel, we see how Jesus actually healed people from all the unclean spirits that existed in them and from all their health issues. So, why would God punish us through illness but then heal us? It doesn’t make sense. For this reason, we need to believe that our merciful Father will in no way compromise us in any way and through any illness. We need to trust in the healing power of the Lord who in many ways and through our prayers, is rebuking this Coronavirus amidst all the commotion and anxiety, silencing it and removing it from our society.

While I was having coffee with Father Youwakim yesterday afternoon, he told me of a story of hope in our humanity and in our priesthood. A 72-year-old Italian priest, Father Don Giuseppe Berardelli, who was infected with the Coronavirus, gave up his life to save the life of a younger man by giving up his ventilator. In the footsteps of Jesus, he offered the ultimate sacrifice of himself to save the life of someone else. How can God then, who sacrificed his only son on the cross to save us, punish us by sending us diseases and illnesses? Let us all continue to place our hope in God and his plan of salvation for us, let us put our hope in our priests, who too would die for us and let us put our hope in each other, that we too would do the same for one another.

Amen