Why is God allowing COVID-19?

My previous column touched on the evangelical Christian pastor Rick Warren’s reply to a question raised by a viewer of his interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper and Dr. Sanjay Gupta on why God causes pain and suffering dealt by COVID-19. The same question is being asked by hundreds of thousands of people whose loved ones have died because of the virus, or even by other causes of death.

A friend of mine, Erlinda Nable Senturias, former president of the Southern Christian College of Midsayap, Cotabato and a former medical executive of the World Council of Churches, Geneva, wrote me about a local pastor’s reply to that same question. The pastor, Rev. Dr. Rolf Nolasco Jr. has written a book, Compassionate Presence, which seeks to answer the question of sufferers of COVID-19 and other natural calamities like this year’s eruption of Taal Volcano that displaced many people in Batangas and Laguna.

Dr. Nolasco, according to Erlinda, explains that “human suffering comes from a host of sources such as the choices that we or other people make (moral evil) to the suffering induced by natural disasters (natural evil). Suffering as divine punishment, testing, and discipline is perhaps the most common form of suffering that is peculiar to God’s people. The author cites Hebrews 12: 5-12 as one of the reasons for the suffering which is a means to transform God’s children: 1) to combat sin (v.4); 2) as an expression of God’s love and encouragement to those who desire genuinely to please God (v.5-9); 3) recognize that it is for our own good and as a way of sharing in God’s holiness (v. 10); 4) identity affirming experience of our status as God’s children (v.8), and 5) accept that it will hurt but we need to rest in the assurance that those who embrace God’s discipline with endurance will yield fruits of righteousness and peace (v.11).”

Dr. Nolasco, says Erlinda, also suggests the reading of Job’s experience of undeserved and incomprehensible suffering, “one that is brought about by irrational evil and incoherent suffering. There is a backdrop to the story, which is not known to Job. In Job 30: 16-21, Job laid bare his heart in protesting God’s justice in a deeply personal way. He felt that God seemed out of reach and unmoved by his cry of wisdom. In Job 38-42, the hidden character of God’s wisdom in the world is highlighted. Job needs to grapple with his own suffering and must surrender. This submission came in the form of repentance for his “arrogance in impugning God’s justice” and unbelief in God’s sovereignty and goodness. There remains some mysteries to suffering. Finally, Job’s healing was offered simply as a gift. The story of Job calls us to take a radical step beyond doubt and to throw ourselves unreservedly into the loving embrace of a compassionate God. I often hear people saying, ‘This too shall pass.’ God breaks through the veil of our suffering and offers grace and promise of compassionate companionship. 

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Now a few words about Ms. Senturias. On March 15, 2020, the day she turned 72 years old, she and her husband, Pastor Alvaro O. Senturias, were attending a worship service at the UCCP Paradahan in Tanza, Cavite. In that service, physical distancing was observed – no more of the usual hugging and handshaking. Pastor Al, administrative pastor of the church, informed the congregation that one of the preventive measures to stop the spread of the virus was to suspend the holding of mass gatherings like the worship service. Erlinda was requested by the church’s chair Vito N. Coronel to give a lecture to make the congregation aware of COVID 19, a new and evolving virus. The congregation voted to suspend all church activities until April 15, the initial end of the lockdown. The pastor would send to the congregation the Scripture reading for the midweek prayer meetings, Sunday services, and Holy Week observance. The families would hold the family altar at their respective homes. One of the members, Josefina Chavez, died of a lingering colon cancer with metastasis to the bones on March 22. Therefore, no vigil could be held. Church elders of UCCP Paradahan offered prayers and condolences to Josefina’s husband, Charles Chavez. 

 Erlinda is a supervisor-in-training of the Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) of Jethro Guidance Center, Inc. and student of Applied Counseling at the Union Theological Seminary in Cavite. But due to the lockdown, the CPE classes and the spiritual retreat of the Applied Counseling were moved indefinitely until the end of COVID-19. To while her time away, she read Dr. Nolasco’s book, whose message she has shared with friends.

The United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) through the United Church Workers’ Organization (UCWO) collected relief goods for 700 most affected members in the hard-hit conferences of the Lowland Cavite South Manila Conference (LCSMC) and United Metropolis Conference. UCCP Paradahan submitted the names of the most needy families to Rev. Callum Tabada, president of UCWO- LCSMC. The family members received their relief goods on Holy Friday delivered by church workers of UCCP Cosmopolitan Church Rev. Grace Fe Inocentes-Magan, Rev. Veronica Tio Estayo, DM Jeffrey Ramirez Jr. and Kenan Magan, RN.

 Philippine churches have lost pastors in their efforts to serve patients. Bishop Noel Pantoja, national director of the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches, confirmed the death of evangelical pastors: Pastor Arleen Fidel of the Manila Baptist Church in Padre Faura, Pastor Edwin Daet of the Independent Baptist Missions Association (IBMA), Pastor Emmanuel Quizon of IBMA, and Pastor Sally Ojeda of the Rizal Province Ministerial Association Harvest International Ministries. PCEC called for the adoption of pastors’ families mostly from the poorest barangays in the country who are affected by the closure and lockdown of churches. Pastors are not covered by the amelioration fund of the government because of the policy of separation of the church and state.

What hit Erlinda hard was learning of victims she knew personally. Atty. Byron Bocar sent a private message to former colleagues in the Human Rights Victims’ Claims Board (HRVCB) on March 19 requesting for prayers of medical doctors who caught the COVID-19, some of whom were in critical condition. She was shocked to see in the list the name of cardiologist Dr. Raul Diaz Jara. Dr. Edelina de la Paz confirmed the need to pray for him and his wife, Dr. Leni Jara. Some of those listed are pediatricians who were friends of the Senturias’ daughter, Dr. Yasmin Senturias, also a pediatrician.

Then on March 21, it was announced that a cardiologist, Dr. Israel Bactol, a son of Pastor Romy and Deaconess Cely Bactol of the Iglesia Evangelica Metodista en las Islas Filipinas (IEMELIF) succumbed to the virus. He was the first doctor to be reported to have died while doing his work in cardiology at the Philippine Heart Center, with only a mask to protect him, without the proper Personal Protective Equipment. Dr. IB, as he was fondly called, was only 34 years old and a doctor to the barrios, he even served in Erlinda’s province of Oriental Mindoro before specializing in cardiology. It was heartbreaking. His name was included in the Family Altar group chat created by Rev. Engr. Amando Villao of the IEMELIF.

On March 22, Dr. June Pagaduan Lopez, psychiatrist, called for a web of prayer warriors as more frontliners were critical and dying. As a TOWN awardee, June is active in raising funds for the purchase of Personal Protective Equipment for the frontliners.

The indefatigable chef Waya Araos-Wijangco, of the Gourmet Gypsy Art Café in Quezon City and daughter of UCCP Cosmopolitan Church members, the late artist Jerry Araos and Dr. Melendre Araos, is spending her lockdown period cooking food for the frontliners in various hospitals in the National Capital Region, and halal food for Muslim frontliners in Valenzuela, Bulacan.

“God’s providence comes to us through concrete acts of justice, lovingkindness, and compassion. In this time that we need healing the Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform calls for seeking peace and pursuing it,” says Erlinda.

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