The Post COVID-19 and the Mission of the Church
Matthew 22:34-40,
Luke 10:2,
Matthew 9:37-38.
Reflection
Dear sisters and brothers,
Covid-19, a pandemic of twenty-first century, is not only deadly but has awakened the individual, the family, the community, the society, and the world to a new order.
People throughout the world, are anxious about the future but at the same time doing something at present in their places: working from home, dealing with joblessness, searching food for tomorrow, empty pockets without even coins, uncertainties in their lives, somewhat giving possible education to their children, more and more laying off jobs from many companies.
Will this be normal?
A million-dollar question without any certainty, without any answer.
Leaving apart all these, will there be a future for the Church?
Will all priests, pastors, religious brothers and sisters, and people of God, have any mission left other than sacraments?
I say a big ‘YES’.
We have plenty of ministries to do in the Kingdom of God as Jesus said, “Labourers are few but harvest is plenty” (Luke 10:2, Matthew 9:37-38).
I would like to enumerate a few possible missions for the future Church.
1. Social Distancing
The practice of maintaining a greater than usual physical distance (such as six feet or more) from other people or of avoiding direct contact with people or objects in public places during the outbreak of this contagious disease is a must, in order to minimize exposure and reduce the transmission of infection.
It is for the sake of safety.
In addition, it gives an awakening call to each one of us as the disciples of Jesus Christ.
What is it?
We priests, pastors and religious do practice and maintain physical distance (in the name of pagans in olden times) from other people or avoid direct contact with the people of other faith, people of critical thinking, people of other denomination, people of goodwill, people of same work and so on.
Our buildings and the walls around our land is good but at the same time, without any doubt, it keeps us away from normal life, creates suspicion in the minds of people.
Therefore, our attitudes are based on prejudices.
It further influences and ingrains in us that I have nothing to do with what happens in and around me, my community, my church, my society and my country.
The problems do not touch the core my heart. It does not bother me.
We kept social distancing soon after the lockdown was started.
We kept social distancing when thousands and millions of people were moving from their livelihood, hungry, without transportations, walking barefoot, dying on the way to their native places.
By keeping away in the name of social distancing during the pandemic has appeared the visible sign of our brokenness when all these crises started in the beginning.
It has also distanced us from the people of God, who needed us during those struggling and crisis time.
We conveniently forgot that we have a good network system: diocese to diocese, parish to parish, Church to Church, school to school, social work to social work, and have failed in reaching out to our neighbours (those who needed our helping hand).
I do not deny the fact that there were so many of them who reached out individually with their own capacities.
Nonetheless, we failed in our duty as one body of Christ to rise and show our solidarity with the poor, the marginalised and the needy as Jesus prayed that all may be one (John 17:21).
It was a God-given time for the harvest but labourers were all (including me) in closed doors like the disciples for fear of death.
Moses is one of the best examples that I would like to mention here.
He lived a life of comfort from his birth and even in his married place.
But there was something that disturbed him constantly, that which never allowed him to be in his comfortable place.
That call from God, forced him to leave all his comforts and he went to rescue the suffering people.
He succeeded after many hurdles.
We need to be prophets like Moses in this time of crisis, where there are so many acts and policies (the New Education Policy), pushed forward without any wider discussion to make more slaves and labourers.
Are we ready to step out from our social distancing…it is not medical, but social, religious, cultural, economic, and health related in and around us?
Coming days will define us what we do or what we fail to do. Oscar Romero did what a prophet of Jesus would have done.
Are we ready?
There is no doubt that we will have hurdles and hindrances to block us from prophetic intervention.
Nevertheless, we have the hope that God accompanies us, the God who has promised that I am with you and I am who I am.
2. Locked Down
The whole world was locked down to contain the spread of covid-19 in a major level.
It is generally believed that Covid-19 has spread from China through air travel.
We failed to lock down our airports and more over we allowed people to come from different countries without even a checkup at the airports.
We locked down the entire humanity without any further arrangement for their livelihood and food.
But there are some countries who did it, example: Australia.
It gave 48 hours for people to settle and then only it shut the doors.
In the same way, we shut our churches, schools, institutes and social work places, without any further thought to accommodate those people who had no way to go.
We locked down without any further discussion.
Having said that, we have locked down with our own prejudices, misunderstandings with our own church members, or with other our neighbours.
I concentrate only on my needs rather than that of others.
So, lock down is the best option for me and I do it.
I lock myself.
3. Washing our Hands
Washing our hands is a hygienic practice.
It keeps away the germ and virus from infecting us.
We remember that Pilot washed his hands after handing over Jesus (Matthew 27:24).
In the same way, we washed our hands from all religious, social, cultural and health issues of our country.
We have churches, social work centres, hospitals, schools and so on but we wash our hands from all the issues that indirectly and directly affects the people of God.
We wash our hands when a human person is affected.
The person can be a Hindu low caste who was beaten to death, forced to eat human waste, paraded naked, a Muslim who is lynched, a Sikh or a Buddhist.
We failed to stand by these atrocities.
We failed to work in coordination with other goodwill people.
The question is: Are we ready to stand by these people as one humane society?
We shut our mouth when we have to speak up within the Church, within our congregations, within our community and within our family, but we speak and have discussions about political parties and their power and policies at our tables.
Can we wash our hand from all virus that block us from partaking in the struggle and fight for righteous ones in our society?
4. Sanitation
We need to sanitise our Church by disinfecting our fear, selfishness, discrimination, inequality, ego, pride and jealousy by substituting them with humble service like Jesus, who washed the feet of his disciples and set an example to go out shedding the title of the Master.
Jesus not only sanitised (kept away) himself from weaknesses but also sanitised from the virus of rituals, virus of religiosity, virus of rules and regulations that bound the human person from experiencing the salvation of God in love.
He was a free man with everyone including children, women, samaritans, gentiles, sinners, tax collectors, betrayers, deniers and all those who crucified him on the cross by forgiving them.
We (Church) need to remove the masks (thoughts, perspectives, opinions, ideas) which block our true face (Jesus’ face) to be seen by the people of God.
Where are we as his prophets?
Can this pandemic become an eye opener for all of us to do our mission as Jesus did in his life time?
Are we ready and willing?
There will be a new Pentecost and a new risen experience if we discern it.
Let all glory be to Christ our Lord and our God for the future mission of the Church.
May the Heart of Jesus live in the hearts of all. Amen…
