Please Let Me Know You God How to Restore a True Image of God and Experience His Love Again
V Tips for Finding God Among the Coronavirus Crisis
This moment is unlike anything that most of u.s.a. have e'er experienced. The tally of ill and deceased mounts higher every day. We turn on the news or look out our windows to meet empty streets and darkened buildings. We are cut off from ane another, passing our days in varying degrees of isolation. Worries about our health, finances, and the future we had planned dominate our thoughts. Saints similar Ignatius of Loyola enjoin us to "find God in all things," yet, in moments of crisis like the present, we may find ourselves wondering, "Where is God in all this?" Information technology may experience to some that God is merely absent.
Although very few of us has e'er experienced a situation like this one, generations earlier us take endured such trials and even greater than this. Their voices echo in our Christian tradition, offering united states of america wisdom that tin can assistance us find God amidst the current crisis. These pieces of wisdom are not "tips" in the sense of quick fixes. There is no quick set up for a global health crisis, nor for someone who has lost the sense of God'southward presence. What follows are rather invitations to be transformed in the sensation and style of existence we bring to the present moment. Goose egg less volition suffice.
#1: Be on the lookout for the unexpected ways God might be working in the crunch.
So much of our fear and anxiety arises from reactive thinking. Nosotros obsess over the terrible things that could happen: What if I or my loved ones get sick? What if my business goes nether? What if the shop runs out of toilet paper? We fixate on what we have lost — our routines, our plans, freedom of movement, maybe even our jobs. Imagining the skilful that might come out of our current situation comes less easily to us. However, when nosotros look dorsum through the history of God's dealings with humanity, we see that God has brought skillful forth from evil fourth dimension and again. The crowning example is what the Christian tradition refers to as the felix culpa, the "happy mistake." When human beings turned confronting their Creator and all should have been lost, God responded with an even more costless act of generosity past uniting Godself to humanity in the Incarnation and thereby cartoon humanity into the very life of the Trinity. Mindful of God'southward affinity for turning catastrophe into crusade for celebration, we who find ourselves in the midst of a new ending might take pause to ask ourselves, "What unforeseen good might God bring out of this mess?" or "What if in this moment God is inviting me to…?" I suggest some possibilities below, merely I invite you to imagine your own. As Pope Francis highlighted in his recent "urbi et orbi" approving, the Scriptures repeatedly assure us non to be afraid. We need non exist agape because God does not want our suffering simply rather is constantly working to plough our suffering to joy.
#two: Welcome this moment as a time of Sabbath remainder.
COVID-xix has disrupted the business of the earth and forced billions of people worldwide to footstep exterior of their normal routines. For many, this ways that life has slowed down considerably. That many of us experience this slowing downward every bit something uncomfortable should tell us something almost how inhumane our lifestyles have become, how far we take strayed from God'due south vision for our lives. Afterwards creating human beings, God rested and allowable that man beings, too, should rest on the seventh day. The implication seems to be that, if the Creator and Sustainer of the universe can beget to take a twenty-four hours off to appreciate His work, information technology is rather foolhardy of mere mortals to assume that they cannot afford to do likewise. The Jewish people traditionally observed this time of rest not only once a week but also by refraining from agricultural activities and forgiving debts every vii years (the Sabbath twelvemonth). Jewish lore is total of stories of the astonishing fruit (spiritual and literal) born of this practice. Although a day of rest was once commonly observed in the U.s.a., today many of us treat it equally only another day to get things done. This has been to our detriment. We act as if the salvation of the globe depends upon us, and we deport the corresponding mental burden. Now a Sabbath of sorts is existence imposed upon us, who would not honor it of our own will. At present we have no selection but to accept the truth that the Sabbath is intended to ingrain within us — our lives are non totally within our control. Nosotros cannot practise it all. So rather than lamenting the current disruptions and the barb against our presumed omnipotence, we might welcome the opportunity to residual and to live more humanly as long as this crisis persists… and perhaps even across.
#three: Refocus on what is most important in life.
While the pandemic has brought additional stress and piece of work hours upon many medical professionals and workers in essential industries, for many others much of life's daily activity — commuting to work, attending meetings, running errands — has come to an precipitous terminate. Again, this may be a gift that nosotros never would take given ourselves. Many of us accept been living like Jesus' friend Martha, who was overwhelmed past all the work to be done. Nosotros have been so beholden to our to-do lists that we have lost sight of what is most important. Now, however, in the midst of a global slowdown, we may finally be able to hear Jesus' words to Martha as something intended for us: "you are worried and distracted past many things. There is need of only i thing" (Lk 10:41). Jesus makes clear what is that "one necessary thing" earlier in the chapter (Lk 10:27), simply information technology is worth mulling over for ourselves what is most important in life and whether our daily living actually reflects those priorities. We might ask, "Take I chosen a life in which sending 1 more electronic mail takes priority over tucking my child into bed at night or chosen a bigger paycheck at the expense of my physical and mental wellness?" Life will be inverse after this crisis. That much is for sure. Whether or not it turns out to be a change for the ameliorate is somewhat dependent on our power to reevaluate our priorities, make decisions, and form habits in line with what matters most.
#iv: Spend time with God in prayer.
The doors of retail stores are locked, tables at restaurants sit empty, the lights of Broadway'due south theaters have gone down–all because of the COVID crunch. Our world has grown quieter, and, like inactivity, that quiet can be unsettling for those of u.s.a. who are accustomed to constant dissonance. Although nosotros may initially perceive information technology as a threat, this quiet is an invitation. Blaise Pascal once wrote, "All of humanity'due south problems stem from man'south inability to sit quietly in a room alone." We focus our attention "out at that place" because nosotros are afraid of confronting what is "in here." All the same the wisdom of the saints and mystics suggests that our efforts to detect fulfillment out there are doomed to fail. The secret it that we already possess within us all that we demand. We simply do not sit still enough or quiet plenty to be able to recognize it. Now many of us detect ourselves prevented from engaging in our usual incessant activity and deprived of many of our habitual diversions. What if, rather than filling the fourth dimension and silence with extra hours on Netflix, nosotros embraced the silence and endeavored to listen more intently to the Vocalization that has been calling to us from within all along? And what if, in the moments when those afflictive thoughts mentioned above in #1 are growing louder and louder, we met those thoughts with silence or peradventure a simple prayer like "Come, Holy Spirit"? If the feel of people like Teresa of Avila, Brother Lawrence, and Key Nguyen Van Thuan is whatever indication, nosotros would observe greater peace, joy, and gratitude in our days, even in the most difficult of circumstances. Should we follow their case and accept this invitation to prayer, we might just discover that when the globe is again open to united states we are less dependent upon that outside world for our feelings of contentment and self-worth.
#5: Connect more securely with the people in your life.
Perchance the most difficult aspect of our current situation is the isolation many of us are enduring. The crowds that normally environment united states in the part, on the train, and in coffee shops have now dispersed. We are unable to visit with friends and family. Yet there may be an opportunity even in this. If it is truthful that absence makes the heart grow fonder, then perhaps this time of separation will engender in usa a greater appreciation for the people in our lives. And we demand not wait passively for this period of separation to accept its effect. We are blessed to live in an age of unprecedented connectivity wherein we accept the technological chapters to see and speak with people thousands of miles away. With fewer people and duties to brand demands upon us, we have the freedom and the fourth dimension to connect more than deeply with the people who mean the most to united states of america. At the same time, nosotros have the opportunity to reach out (by telephone, Skype, handwritten letters) to those who are most in need and to be the face of God for those who are enduring the greatest suffering. For, in the words of Saint Augustine, "you see the Trinity if y'all encounter love." This is our greatest human being desire — to exist loved. The pandemic has disrupted many aspects of our lives, only information technology has non and cannot foreclose usa from communicating love to i another. It may actually be providing us the opportunity and the motivation to let beloved grow all the more. What is certain above all else in this time when so much is uncertain is that "nothing can separate us from God'south love" (Rom 8:38).
Patrick Manning, Ph.D.
Patrick R. Manning is Assistant Professor of Pastoral Theology, the Chair of the Section of Pastoral Theology at Immaculate Conception Seminary Schoolhouse of Theology at Seton Hall Academy, and the author of Converting the Imagination: Teaching to Recover Jesus' Vision for Fullness of Life (forthcoming from Wipf & Stock). He researches in the areas of religious educational activity, theological anthropology, and the interfacing of faith and culture and teaches courses on pastoral ministry building, catechesis, evangelization, Christian anthropology, secularism, and happiness. In full general, his work focuses on making sense of human beings and how we tin can live life more than abundantly together.
Categories: Organized religion and Service
Source: https://www.shu.edu/theology/news/five-tips-for-finding-god-amidst-the-coronavirus-crisis.cfm
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