Regardless of what each one of us feels about the current crisis in the world, how our respective states and countries have or have not responded, one thing is for certain – we will learn some things. We will learn some things about our governments, we will learn some things about each other, and we will learn some things about ourselves.
God learned some things about us when He gave us free will. He learned that no matter how hard and how much He loves us, we will continue to make poor choices from time to time. And he learned that sometimes, when face with crisis, when overcome by temptation, we will fail.
He learned that we could not save ourselves, and in the end, if left to our own devices we would only condemn ourselves. We needed a Savior. And the only one that could save us was Himself, and so He came to us as His Son in the form of one of us, to live from us, to learn from us. To die for us and to leave His Spirit within us.
We were condemned and confined. And now we are freed.
This was the only way.
Fast-forward to today. Here we are, not so much condemned, but confined. Confined from each other, our friends and families, and confined from the Sacraments and from the Mass. And we are learning some things, are we not? For so many of us, this is something of the likes we have never faced before. Let’s face it, most of us have it really good when compared with people from past decades and centuries in terms of conveniences and technology.
But being away from people, and away from the Church and the Sacraments is tough. So in a way, we are like the apostles who we imprisoned in the first reading today. They weren’t condemned for their faith, they were just confined for a little while, and then they were set free.
Why were they confined? Was God using this as a time to teach them something? Was it a lesson for us Christians many years down the road? Was it so He could once again demonstrate His power?
Maybe it’s just something that happened in all circumstances and chaos of the day, and then God used it for all of the above, and that His son came for a reason – to free all of us from our prisons we find ourselves in.
But we still need to suffer a little. We still need to experience discomfort, that thorn in our flesh. We still need to be confined from time to time – so that we appreciate Him all the more.
So what about our current confinement? What are you learning in this time, about Jesus, about others, about yourself? How are you reacting to the crisis we find ourselves in?
Are you following Jesus through it all? Is your faith growing? Are you being consumed by fear and panic and negativity? Are you seeing some things about yourself and others that you like? Or perhaps some things that you don’t like?
Maybe it’s somewhere in between? Don’t let this crisis, this confinement go to waste. Learn some things about yourself. Learn some things about each other. Learn some things about Christ – and how he can free your soul from the confines we often find ourselves in.
