Dear Parishioners and Friends,
As we close ourselves in and businesses close down, the projected longterm effects on our livelihood start to look more ominous. When will the economy recover? This crisis could be a defining event for a generation as global relationships are permanently changed along will our public habits. It already feels, at times, like the end of the world as we know it.
All this may not be a catastrophic as the fall of Rome, but the perspective of Augustine in the wake of that disruption can apply to us as well:
Rome has collapsed and your hearts are outraged by this. Rome was built by men like yourself. Since when did you believe that men had the power to build things that are eternal? Your souls, filled with the light of the Holy Spirit, will not perish.
In all this is abundant hope. Joseph said to his brothers: “What you intended for evil, God intended for good.” If Joseph were a metaphor for a civilization, there would be a lot of permanent loss during his time in the dungeon. But God used that trial to raise him up to a place much higher than he was before.
Likewise, St. Augustine writes, “The whole of history since the ascension of Jesus into heaven is concerned with one work only: the building and perfecting of this ‘City of God’.“
God will ultimately use this trial for good of his people who are citizens of the City of God.
In Christ,
Fr. Scharbach