The plan of God to bless your Family through Covid19

 GOD’S PLAN FOR YOUR FAMILY

God’s plan for mankind is well spelt out in the book of Jeremiah 29:11 when he said: “for I know what plan I have for you. Plan for peace and not for disaster, plans to give you hope and a future.” According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church Mankind was made for the glory of God to love and to serve God in this world, and to be with him in the world to come. St. Bonaventure explains that God created all things "not to increase his glory, but to show it forth and to communicate it", for God has no other reason for creating than his love and goodness: "Mankind came into existence when the key of love opened his hand."  The First Vatican Council explains:

This one, true God, of his own goodness and "almighty power", not for increasing his own beatitude, nor for attaining his perfection, but in order to manifest this perfection through the benefits which he bestows on creatures, with absolute freedom of counsel "and from the beginning of time, made out of nothing both orders of creatures, the spiritual and the corporeal. . 

But there came a virus of sin in Genesis chapter 3 when Man disobeyed God, a gulf was created between God and man. Mankind throws itself into a sinful situation. A pandemic of all pandemics, its consequence includes deprivation of communion with God and exclusion from sharing in eternal life and a complete lockdown of eternal happiness. Professor Akinwale in an attempt to explain Anslem’s Cur Deus Homo teaches that to sin is to steal God’s honor. Man sinned, thereby he stole God’s honor which is infinite. If God over looked man’s sin it will be unjust, and God is a Just God. Therefore, Man must pay, but he cannot pay because God’s honor is infinite, and man is finite, for that reason, out of divine love God became man to pay for the sin of man thereby reconciled man with God. He ceaselessly kept the human race in His care, to give eternal life to those who perseveringly do good in search of salvation (see Rom. 2:6-7). God’s plan was made manifest, that is; to save humanity despite our sinful nature. We call to mind how God saved Mankind with the first lockdown in Genesis chapter 6 when God told Noah to build an Ark and he shutdown the whole world for 40 days with a plan to safe humanity from the virus of falling angels.

Our world today faces another pandemic; a virus that cares not about nationality, ethnicity, rich, poor or faith but affects all relentlessly. The most vulnerable people: the marginalized and the displaced people of our society pay the highest price and are at the highest risk of suffering the devastating effects of COVID-19. We must, therefore, explain the plan of God to safe humanity, especially to the sick, aged and the most vulnerable in our society as we fight this disease and other vices ravaging the world, our Nation Nigeria, Families, Churches and Individual lives. The words of God in Revelation 21: 5-6 is pivotal at this point when he said “I will make all things new in your life, see I make all things new, and he said write them down; because they are sure and true, it is already done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. Again, in Isaiah 43: 18 He instructed us not to dwell on the past events or remembers the things of old.  He continued in Isaiah 43:19, “look, I am doing a new thing, it springs forth, do you not see it? I am making a way in the wilderness and rivers in the stream.” Hence God’s plan is not to Judge us but to save us. Pope Francis explained the meaning of the COVID-19 pandemics and its implication for humanity on March 27th 2020 before raising the Monstrance with the Blessed Sacrament to give an extraordinary blessing “Urbi et Orbi to the world, he said, “ Corona virus is not God’s Judgment on humanity, but God’s call on people to judge what is most important to them and resolve to act accordingly from now on, a time to choose what matters and what passes away, a time to separate what is necessary from what is not, it is a time to get our lives back on track” with regard to God’s plan for us. 

These are uncertain times. The global pandemic caused by COVID-19 has been transforming the lives of millions of people in an unimaginable way. The changes have been taking place so quickly that most of the world's population have been caught off guard. We are all trying to adapt to this new reality in the hope that the pandemic will end soon, although it is impossible to predict how long it will last and what consequences it will have for all, some may be tempted to ask what is God’s plan for Mankind in the face of this pandemic?

The plan of God is revealed to us in the Easter message of our Bishop when he said “Beloved People of God, Christ cares and bears with us, especially in this challenging and trying period, our pains, worries, anxieties, sufferings, sicknesses etc. “For he has carried our sorrows and has borne our grief” (Is. 53:4-6), so that we may resurrect with him to a new life, new beginning, renewed hope and trust in his abiding presence for “dying he destroyed our death, rising he restored our life.” We feel more the abiding presence, victory and closeness of the Risen Lord especially during this period when everyone is concerned about each other, when every nation, tribe, peoples, color, families and races are knitted together in prayer and action. I am sure that God has listened and he has granted our request and prayers by the Passion, Death, and the Resurrection of his Son Jesus Christ because by his cross and resurrection he has redeemed you, our families, our church, our nation and indeed the whole world.”

COVID-19 is a bad thing, but there are good gifts that God can bring even from this. As I think about my own life, and maybe this is true for you, through COVID-19, I have been reminded that I do not control my life. COVID-19 has shown me that I am utterly and completely dependent on the living God. I have come to realize the importance of Family life, the beauty of togetherness. With the sudden silence in the most populous streets of the world, the emptiness in cathedrals and churches, in the market squares and play grounds I longed to hug and be hugged but none came. We had taken God’s grace for granted; we thought it was our right to be in church, to shake hands with friends, and to socialize but suddenly the government announces the principle of social distance, a theory of sanitizing and keeping safe. 

The plan of God for Mankind is to keep safe, to distance ourselves and families from virus of sins, hatred, rancour and all vices. To sanitize our souls with the sacrament of reconciliation, to wash our hands clean of iniquities, and to thank God for his graces. If every family could fear sin the way we feared the Covid-19 we shall always stay safe within God’s plan for Mankind.

Rev Fr. Ogundipe O. Lawrence, S.D.V.  

July 31st 2020 the memorial of St Ignatius of Loyola

SOURCES

Anthony,Akinwale, Soteriology and Grace class discussion, Dominican Institute Ibadan, unpublished February                      26, 2014

Dei Filius I: DS 3002; cf Lateran Council IV (1215): DS 800. 138 Eph 1:5-6.

Peter Odetoyinbo: The Resurrection our Hope and Consolation; Easter message by Most Rev Dr Peter Odetoyinbo. Bishop , Catholic Diocese of Abeokuta April 2020

Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation Dei Verbum,In Vatican Council II: The Concilliar and Post Conciliar Documents Vol. I, edited by Austin Flannery.New Delhi St Pauls publications, 1975. No 3. 

St. Bonaventure, In II Sent. I, 2, 2,

St. Thomas Aquinas, Sent. II, prol.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, Nairobi, Pauline Publications Africa, 1994. No. 293