What lessons can we learn from the Covid pandemic? : To answer this, I have chosen to speak to you about the reflections of Cardinal Mario Grech , during the interview given to Civiltà Cattolica on October 23, 2020.
We know it, we live it, the pandemic period forces the whole world to stop; for many, in confinement, the house has become the place of refuge against contagion. The streets emptied. Churches too. The suspension of liturgical celebrations brings many questions about the way Christians live their faith.
With great freshness and in a somewhat offbeat manner, Cardinal Grech underlines how much this could be an opportunity for renewal. The pandemic has brought to light that the life of the Church has not been interrupted, contrary to what some have said, as if they had forgotten “the richness and variety of experiences that help us contemplate the face of the Christ” .
It is undeniable that the Eucharist is ” source and summit of all Christian life” (Lumen Gentium 11). However, this is not the only possibility for the Christian to experience the Mystery and to encounter the Lord Jesus. Paul VI observed this well when he wrote that in the Eucharist “the presence of Christ is ‘real’ and not exclusively, as if the others were not ‘real’.”
For to meet Jesus is to commit oneself to his Word. In this sense, didn’t the doctors and nurses who risked their lives to stay close to the sick transform the hospital wards into ” cathedrals “? The breaking of Eucharistic bread cannot be done without breaking bread with those who have none. This is diakonia. It is a constitutive dimension of the being of the Church and of her mission. A meaningful experience of service is a fundamental way of evangelism in today’s era of change. Cardinal Grech also speaks of a new ecclesiology emerging from the forced experience of confinement: living the Church within our families. “If the domestic Church fails, the Church cannot exist. If there is no domestic Church, the Church has no future! The domestic Church is the key that unlocks horizons of hope!”
With this virus that knows no borders, we are therefore called to a new understanding of contemporary society to discern a new vision of the Church in order to live in a more fraternal way and build a world that is more beautiful, more just and more worthy of humanity.
