Lately, we have all been preoccupied with the serious threats, uncertainties, and insecurities which the pandemic has brought upon the whole world. Locally, we have been placed under an Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ).
The Province-wide ECQ has kept most of us at home. With our attention lately being monopolized by the intricacies and differing interpretations of its rules, this year’s celebration of Lent may pass unobserved for many of us. And yet, it is precisely the message of Lent which gives us the moral strength and resolve for overcoming this present crisis.
Today, we will experience a “quiet” Palm Sunday. There will be no crowds filling up the streets, and our “hosannas” will be expressed only deeply in our hearts. Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Christ’s passion until the sunrise of a victorious Easter.
The Lenten Season marks the last days that Jesus spent on earth as a man. Most of all, the season marks the culmination of Jesus’ ministry. Lent fulfills Old Testament Scripture. This ministry is summarized in the oft-cited verse, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16). This is the Good News of Salvation. This is the Gospel of Christ bringing a sinful world to reconciliation with God the Father to being about man’s complete redemption.
As we journey through this Lenten season, the uncertainties from the CoViD-19 pandemic may distract us, and challenge Lent’s message of hope and faith. But the present distraction should never defeat the message of God’s love for us. And by His love, we shall overcome!
The measure of God’s love was articulated by Jesus when he described His own sacrifice for the salvation of mankind. “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13).
In our battle against CoViD-19, our health workers have made Christ-like sacrifices out of their great love for fellowmen. To date, too many have made the ultimate sacrifice of losing their lives that more of those afflicted may live in their physical and material being.
Beyond healing from disease, Christ sacrificed His own life was for our claim to eternity. “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”(1 John 4:10)
Most of us who are hiding from CoViD-19 through quarantines and social distancing will not be able to approximate the love and sacrifice of our “going-the second/third/fourth/infinity-mile” of our health workers: doctors, nurses, medical technologists, healthcare staff such as office personnel, cafeteria, utility and maintenance crew, security guards, and everyone enlisted into this life-threatening pandemic war.
God, in His infinite wisdom, gives us a human example of His love for us. He characterizes His love as akin to a mother’s love for her child. “As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you. “ (Isaiah 66:13).
This is His promise that, like our mothers, He will never leave us or forsake us. A mother’s love necessarily brings her pain. In childbirth, in our illness, in our struggles through life, even in our rejection of her in later life. Motherhood, though glorious, is painful indeed!
Though our mothers often sacrifice in pain for us, so, too, did God bear the ultimate pain by giving up His only Son. “Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, who seek the Lord : Look to the rock from which you were hewn and to the quarry from which you were dug. Look to Abraham your father. And to Sarah who gave birth to you in pain. ”(Isaiah 51:1
Our redemption was bought in pain, suffering, and sacrifice. Such sacrifice brought us victory over the greatest enemy of human life: Death.
Through the victory of the Resurrection, let us as One Community, One Nation, One World forge ahead in confidence, and claim the victory over CoViD-19 in the Name, and by the Power of Jesus Christ, our Risen Lord.
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