NEWS ANALYSIS/OMNIS TERRA - Has conronavirus caught Christian believers unprepared?

"Coronavirus has caught Christians in the various continents unprepared, distracted by concerns and conflicts of diverse nature, and blinded by proposals of half-truths, warped truths and ‘instrumentalized truths’. We have become like “children, carried by the waves and blown about by every shifting wind of teaching”: reflection of an Indian Archbishop on the Christian spiritual approach to the emergence of the coronavirus. Social distancing reaffirms forgotten values: withdrawal, solitude, silence, meditation, prayer ": this is what Salesian Archbishop Thomas Menamparampil, emeritus of Guwahati, in northeastern India, and former head of the Office for Evangelization within the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences (FABC) says to Agenzia Fides, and published on "Omnis Terra" website. The Archbishop points out that the so-called "Social Distancing’, has brought some ‘unintended blessing’, it reminds the world that ‘withdrawal’ was always a positive value in Christian tradition. "Monks withdrew to the mountains, hermits into caves, contemplatives into forests. They were guardians of the environment wherever they went, they protected nature, they respected the cosmic order. They believed that solitude deepens a person, silence has power, meditation keeps one close to God, prayer obtains whatever one seeks".
"The isolation that Coronavirus has imposed on us - he continues - has made us think. It has compelled us to sit back, relax, and evaluate our day-to-day life, and notice some of our superficialities: quick profits, overconcern for appearance, figure and form; hasty judgements, fatuous boasts, petty bickerings, negligence of courtesies, resentments over trifles".
In addition, the Archbishop notes "the calamity has stimulated a quick change in attitudes: there has been an outburst of generosity from the most unexpected sources. All of sudden we realize we can be generous, helpful, and reach out in collaboration…that we need each other, we are interdependent" (- continues).

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