By Most Rev Prakash Mallavarapu,
Archbishop of Visakhapatnam
Just as we are forced to learn lessons to take care in order to protect our life from the dangers of Covid-19 virus, we have to take all the care to be pure in mind, and body, spirit and soul, The virus of selfishness and greed, allurements and attractions of the world, ambition to be rich and to enjoy, etc, make it rather difficult to remain pure, righteous and morally upright.
Here, what needs to be done is to closely examine one’s life of faith. What we profess and claim to believe should be connected to the actual living of our daily life. Life has to be lived not in isolation but in relation to God and fellow human beings. How intensely concerned and worried we feel, console, comfort and strengthen when one of our own family member or a relative or a close friend or a long standing neighbor has fallen ill or in a difficult situation?
Do we feel and act towards others, those that are not immediately in family or friends’ circle? In this time of Covid-19 pandemic there are enough and more persons and families who are on the verge of losing confidence and hope. Can we nor reach them, especially, the unreached poor and neglected!
What we truly believe will guide us, provided, faith becomes a personal relationship with God!: The Creed, Nicene as well as Apostle’s Creed, has the summary of what truths we believe as Catholic Christians — about God as the Trinity of Persons, about the creation, salvation, about the Church, about the final destiny of our life, resurrection of the dead and life everlasting, etc.
But, we should ask what has this faith to do with our life? There are such a lot of things! With my (our) faith I must live my life: I live in this bodily sphere, as a member in the given family, as a member in the society, the humanity, as a worker not just earning one’s living but as one who contributes one’s share for the common good, as one who has to live in certain orderly and disciplined manner for one’s own good and the good of others, etc.
In other words, life cannot be lived any way and any how! Life cannot be just drifting along like a paper boat in a stream. It has to be a deliberate and definite way of living. We cannot be just believers but be believers who are living life with conviction born of faith and sustained by listening to the directions that God gives to His faithful ones. For this, taking care of or faith is very much necessary and for this, there has to be a daily care of one’s faith. One has to renew, nourish, nurture, protect, and thus safeguard one’s faith.
Take care of your faith and faith will sustain you even in the most difficult situations and problems that you face!
Conclusion: Church as a community of believers is sustained in several ways in her faith. Faith that is professed is celebrated in the sacramental life of the Church and more specially, with the proclamation of the Word of God.
Devotional practices and Charity in action is another important source and sustenance of the faith of the community. In these matters pastoral care and pastoral leadership at the parish level have a crucial and important role to play. During the last one year due to Covid-19 Pandemic the celebration of faith as a community had serious setbacks. Through the YouTube, locally and regionally promoted T.V. programs a lot of help is given to the faithful to celebrate their faith.
The pastors and their collaborators could take more creative initiatives through cellular phones and creating parish internet / Whatsapp groups in the situation where liturgical gatherings are not possible.
Accompanying the faithful in this difficult time is very important, especially when someone is hospitalized or sick at home or when death occurs in a family, speaking to the family members over the phone and praying for them will be of a very tangible way a pastor can help the faithful. As believers, we have to live in faith and hope and keep saying, like Chiara Lubich of Focolare, “There is
God who has aligned Himself on our side. There is Jesus who has died and is risen so as to give us hope and make us a person capable of communicating this hope to others.”