Amidst the chaotic condition prevailing in the country & in most of the nations, demolishing the usual lifestyle of the mankind, bringing an entire global economy towards a recession the writer wanted to dig deep into the thoughts of the mankind especially through the spectrum of the religion as to how people offer an extra concern of tuning towards the God ’s of their beliefs. Being, a born and raised Catholic, the writer mostly had a neutralized view on the traditions and practices of her religion that lacks proper meaning. But in this article, the writer would like to take her readers towards a different plethora of optimism, as I believe it is all that all of us require during these gloomy days of survival. You may be a Catholic, a Buddhist, an Islam, or of any other religious views but the few words that are flowed down this page is for all mankind, words to think out of humanness.
Positivity through this Epidemic
Like the Quran for Muslims, Thripitakaya for Buddhists, we Catholics also have a highly adored book to nourish ourselves through spirituality, and we call it the Holy Bible. Our lives revolve around its teachings on a daily basis, our weekly masses; the sermons by priests are grounded on the words, stories and spiritual awakening provoked through the Bible. Even during this heartbreaking and hopeless times we cling to the word of God because we strongly believe our happiness, protection and meaning of life is in the hands of God.
³“He will keep you safe from all hidden dangers and from all deadly diseases.
⁵You do not need to fear any dangers at night or sudden attacks during the day or the plagues that strike in the dark or the evils that kills in daylight”
Psalm 91
The Book of Psalms out of which the above-mentioned line was extracted is one of the highly read chapters in the Bible, as it gives a profound sense of faith for the believers to trust in God especially during turbulent times. When Sri Lankan Catholics faced a somewhat similar situation almost a year ago with Easter Sunday bomb attacks, and when we lost hundreds of innocent lives of our community, initially we had doubts over our faith at the mere sight as to why God could not stop the bomber entering the church. As our hearts tore apart seeing the bloodstains all over the church, hearing nothing but lamentations haunting day and night. No human being could console us but only the endless love of God. Catholics are a group of people determined to face martyrdom, to sacrifice their lives for the love of God.
Even during the current deadly epidemic, look at one of the countries that are affected most; Italy, where our Holy See, Our Pope resides, where the majority of the population are Catholics. Our hearts may get disheartened seeing the same, but beneath we carry a message to the world, out of humanity. Faith. Without faith in God, Catholicism is yet another teaching of a spiritual leader.
The Faithful Journey
It is the faith that carries us through these troubled waters. When we were strike by another group of an adamant terrorist a year ago, our faith was only on God, we forgave them out of love because our greatest Jesus Christ himself was able to forgive his persecutors before his death. As we believe this world needs love and peace. Be it Lord Buddha, Jesus Christ, Allah or any other worshipped Gods & Goddesses mankind believes, all of their messages are same, and that is to love each other. What is love? It is another broad subject, but in simplest terms, love means sacrifice, love means forgiving. The life of a Catholic depends on God for everything, because they look forward for a beautiful life beyond this earth. The tenure on this earth for them is limited, their real happiness is the time spent with God in heaven.
But remember, not all the Catholics think the same. Some of them may seem greedy of worldly pleasures, endless acquiring and chassis of evil, each community has a group of such people, some prefer to acquire, whilst some prefer to give. But my dear friends ask yourselves, what kind of a person are you? During this deadly corona, outbreak were you able to reach out to a one-family underprivileged? Did your heart melt thinking there are many lives that depend on a daily wage and now most of those jobs are at a halt. If you are not in a position to help them financially, at least pray for them, because when you pray especially for others Gods above listens more attentively.
The Message of Love
At the end of this read, you may feel, I am not a Catholic, therefore I can get nothing out of this. You are wrong because the writer invited you to read between the lines for the message of love. Whatever your religion is, this is the ideal time to tune yourself more towards that respective religion. A person who is spiritually nourished would never fail in life. Do you still rely on a group of scientists to invent a vaccine to combat this epidemic? You would if you are an Atheist. Religion is a choice, you may follow it or you may not. Though since birth we were clustered to a particular religion, mankind was given the freedom to switch from one to another or follow many at the same time or follow nothing. The writer would not say Atheists have no drop of love in their lives. But embrace the true happiness that God above can bring you. There are limits as to what mankind could achieve, but for God above everything is limitless. All of us fight silent battles in our lives; it could be financially, socially, or spiritually. The beauty of the battle is when there is a supportive hand that protects you, and that is the unseen spiritual energy in this universe. Tune towards it, embrace the positive vibes to your lives, do it with love, do it with God.
Amen