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 granted to Civiltà Cattolica on October 23, 2020.
We know it, we experience it, the pandemic period forces the whole world to stop; for many, in confinement, the home has become the place of refuge against contagion. The streets have emptied. The churches too. The suspension of liturgical celebrations raises many questions about the way Christians live their faith.
With great freshness and in a slightly offbeat manner, Cardinal Grech underlines how this could be an opportunity for renewal. The pandemic has highlighted that the life of the Church has not been interrupted, contrary to what some have said, as if "the richness and variety of experiences that help us to contemplate the face of Christ" had been forgotten.
It is undeniable that the Eucharist is " the source and summit of the whole Christian life" (Lumen Gentium 11). However, it 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 in an exclusive way, as if the others were not 'real'."
Because to meet Jesus is to commit oneself to his Word. In this sense, did not the doctors and nurses who risked their lives to remain close to the sick transform hospital wards into " cathedrals "? The breaking of the Eucharistic bread cannot be done without breaking bread with those who have none. This is the diakonia. It is a constitutive dimension of the being of the Church and its mission. A meaningful experience of service is a fundamental path of evangelization in the current era of change. Cardinal Grech also speaks of a new ecclesiology that emerges 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 opens 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.
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