The Virus "Stay at Home" - 30 Day Retreat - Day 4

Times like these can cause us to be laser-focused on the mystery of Life and Death. Typically many, if not most of us, rarely give these ultimate issues a moment’s thought.  It’s easy to take life for granted. It’s easy to ignore where our life comes from, to ignore the creator of life. We allow God to fade into the background of our day to day existence. The coronavirus has reminded many of us of the fragility of life. And for some of us during this crisis, God has been brought out of the background.

Even when we can’t feel God, he is still there, always there, never leaving or forsaking. His love is big enough to span even the distance of our wandering heart. It is not God who moves away from us; it is not God who is distant.  It is our relationship to Him, which is in question and not his relationship to us.

We cannot grasp the master plan of the universe, which allows for so much suffering and pain; we can, however, respond positively.  We can find meaning amid the suffering, and we can offer real and practical help to those in need.

We all ask the question: Where is God when it hurts? That is the question that never goes away. A hospice worker once wrote: “God does not prevent the hard things that happen in this free and dangerous world, but instead shares them with us all.”

A fundamental Church teaching, which is so important to remember in times like this, is that God enters the world through us.  How we treat each other makes all the difference as to whether those around us will feel God's presence.  If God is to be present in our lives right now, it will most certainly be because others saw the living God in us.

Pray:  In silence ask God to make Himself present in our life, and to show you how He needs your help right now.

Action:  Call someone who is living alone and chat with them for a while.  Reach out to a senior and give them some encouragement.