A mortal contagion

During season of Lent listen more deeply to God’s word
 
A little more than two months ago not many of us had heard of the coronavirus or COVID19. Today, everyone is on alert. As I wrote this column, I received word that a series of bishops’ meetings I planned to attend in Washington D.C. had been cancelled due to concern over the spread of the virus. It is impacting our daily lives, our commerce and travel, and even our worship.
 
Earlier this month, to safeguard against transmission of the virus, I announced temporary measures for Mass such as refraining from handshakes at the sign of peace and encouraging receiving Communion in the hand. Along with practical measures such as frequent handwashing and covering our coughs and sneezes, we can minimize the risk of spreading or contracting the flu and coronavirus.
 
We all are called to pray for those infected as well as the health workers and others seeking to stop its spread.
 
Reflecting on this alarming contagion that has spread throughout the world so quickly and brought fear in its wake and even panic, I cannot help but consider a comparison with another deadly contagion – sin.
 
Sin entered the world through the disobedience of our first parents. With sin came death. Death is the bitter fruit and consequence of sin. Unlike the coronavirus, sin has a 100 percent mortality rate. We all are infected. We all sin. We all will die.
 
Yet, while COVID19 has no remedy, God has provided for us the sure remedy for sin and its deadly fruit. Because of his love for us, God sent his son into a world infected by sin to take on himself our sin and its consequences. He entered human history in our sinful nature. Though without sin himself, he became sin for us and took on himself the punishment for sin, death. He died for us. He conquered death by his resurrection from the dead. He opens for us the way to eternal life. It is a way that leads through death to resurrection. The cross becomes the unlikely sign of our victory.
 
It is faith in Jesus Christ, and in the power of his resurrection, that gives us a share in his victory and his life. Even as we eagerly listen for the breaking news and guidelines coming from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help us avoid infection with the coronavirus, God has given us his Church with its teaching and its sacraments to guide and keep us safe from the contagion of sin and to lead us more deeply into the new life he has won for us.
 
Do we listen as intently or as eagerly to God’s instructions as we do to the instructions of the CDC?
 
The season of Lent is given to us by the Church to help us listen more deeply to God’s word, to turn away from sin and embrace the remedy and new life that God has offered us in Christ and his Holy Spirit through the riches of his Church.