I wrote this a week after the entire Luzon was placed in an “enhanced community quarantine” (ECQ) by President Rodrigo Duterte. This entailed the closing of schools and non-essential businesses, stopping the operations of mass public transportation, maintaining checkpoints, among others.
These stricter, unfamiliar measures come with news of uncertainty and the unknown – of markets crashing and businesses closing – and with anxiety as the death toll and number of infected rises. It is safe to say that this pandemic is the apocalypse of our day. It brings forth a challenge in our faith in God and our love for our neighbors.
This is why, as Christians, we are often told to turn our fears into faith (Isa. 41:10,13; Isa. 43:1; 2 Tim. 1:7). We are afraid of the unknown and hold on to fear due to a lack of faith in God to handle our situation. By believing in Christ and allowing God to take charge of our body, mind, and soul, we can let Him control our fears. This, too, shall pass, they say in God’s name. Stay calm, stay safe, and pray.
In our circumstances, I find this short-sighted. We tend to forget that Jesus is the ultimate source and norm of a Christian moral life (Mt. 19:16-21). Discipleship is imitating Christ wherein one can faithfully and creatively live under God’s love and Kingdom. Essentially, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the restriction of the movement and social distancing of people is rightly encouraged. This can slow down the spread of the virus, and this can easily be done by a middle-class Christian. We, however, forget that social distancing is a class issue. The sudden ECQ itself has massed together people without the privilege of a car in checkpoints. The ban on public transport and scaling back of social welfare programs has brought drastic effects to the people who need it. The priorities towards the powerful and the military, with the absence of safety nets and lack of health and social initiatives, buries millions more into hunger and poverty. We must be reminded that a disciple who does what Jesus did exercises hospitable inclusion. There is no room for anti-poor policies, cruel exclusion, and domination in the Kingdom of God (Jn. 13:6-10; Mt. 23:5-10; Mt. 18:21-35).
The cross of Jesus Christ reveals God’s total self-giving and self-dispossessing love. It reflects His mercy and forward forgiveness despite our sins (Eph. 2:4-5). We must see the world from the eyes of the victimized and see the victimized from the point of view of God. In a crucified world full of sinners, we must do what we can to bring people down from the cross – just like Jesus did.
“Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me” (Mt. 25:40-45). If you love God, you love others. If you want to praise Him, you take care of one another. To show mercy is to bring justice to those persecuted by the powerful. These people constantly persecuted are otherwise known as the poor who become inconsequential when a modern Christian is safe, practicing social distancing, in their fully-stocked concrete home.
God is not only here to keep us calm in a pandemic. God is in the people who have nothing left to buy on the shelves. God is in the people who line up at pawnshops to be able to manage the rest of the quarantine period. God is in hundreds of drivers of public utility vehicles, forced to circumnavigate the law as they have no money for food. God is in the vendors who walk hours to buy goods to sell for their own food. God is in the underpaid frontliners in hospitals who don’t have the proper gear, who have to walk miles like the struggling cashiers and baggers to get to work. God is in the elderly and homeless trying to take “shelter” from the virus, yet go to jail for breaking an ill-conceived curfew. God is in the people who have not received aid – who couldn’t – and in those who have not been tested due to the rich and powerful.
“What does the Lord require of you? To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God” (Mic. 6:8). The world of the poor is more than just suffering and death – they demonstrate an active kind of hope. It is not enough to be concerned for them but to enable them to experience God as their God. Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount does not tell us to insist on our own rights but invites us to have an ultimate concern for others. It was not a sermon for only believers, but for everyone (Lk. 1:52-53; Mt. 5:44-48).
Christ did not come to solely give us grace, but to reveal the power of His grace. Being able to respect all people, to not be drugged by the comforts of privilege, and to take action against injustices (that we have more or less contributed) is to be part of the Christian community – an inclusive community of love. We must be open-minded and not stubborn, hold off our judgments, and use the responsibility entailed in our privileges. We must do more than stay quiet, give love and prayers, but be more pro-active and demand accountability. We must do more than donate what we can, but ensure that these injustices don’t happen again.
In these times, I believe it is better to say: Pray, stay calm, stay safe, and stay critical. Lent is only a season of reflection and preparation – more comes after. Our social, economic, and political systems have injustices built into them, sometimes not as obvious, but it is where sin has been objectified and made concrete to oppress. With God’s grace, we have been invited to redefine our priorities, challenge our decisions, concerns, and lifestyles. We must deeply look at our lives, our friends and family, and convert ourselves politically, religiously, and morally (Mic. 6:8). God is in the vulnerable, the poor, and we must enter their world and fight with and for them, especially in times where they are at most persecuted.
Story by Angel Chan, Blazers Batch 2015
Comments