This is not a time to blame each other, much less the president or the government. The coronavirus was not created by President Duterte or President Trump. We are all trying to cope and to protect each other during this unprecedented crisis.
If we cannot help, let us keep our mouth shut, keep away from posting fake news in social media and pray. Best of all, let us all contemplate and reflect and abandon our evil ways. Here in Metro Manila, we are all confined to barracks so to say. Quarantined at home, not allowed to go out, not even to hear Mass because the churches are closed. The Masses are by Facebook Live, and perhaps we can send our offerings by LBC, Palawan, or Lhuillier. The word is social distancing, we have to be one meter away from our spouses. This is a good population control mechanism. And we are all wearing masks while watching Netflix.
But on a more serious note, this mandatory house arrest gives me time for serious reflection. I have a small office in the first floor of my house and I stay here contemplating alone on my life and the things I have done and those that I have failed to do. I think of the people I hurt by my impulsive words and thoughtless actions or inaction. I think of the friends I neglected and the enemies I have refused to forgive. If COVID-19 should take me, I will have a lot of sins to account for when I meet my Creator. I have caused a lot of hurt feelings even on the people I profess to love and care for. And I failed to do a hundred or so things that I should be doing.
My reflection tells me that God, in his mysterious ways, did not create the coronavirus. But he allows its coming in order to put many things in order, and to give his people an opportunity to contemplate and pray. In the same manner that he allowed the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and also allowed the great flood for 40 days and 40 nights, He allowed this virus to come in order to send a strong message to humanity that we are not in control. He is and without him, we can do nothing. God allows bad things to happen in order to put forth his message of Good News for our salvation as sinners. In this time of Lent, we should renew and cleanse ourselves from all sins and inequities.
Man has committed two mortal sins: the sin of too much greed, and the sin of too much indifference. By greed, man has destroyed the environment, the paradise created by the Father. He has destroyed the forest, polluted the waters and the air, poisoned all fauna and flora, exploited people, and placed themselves and their families in dynasties of powers and wealth, through means of compulsion and corruptions. By indifference, man has closed his eyes to the poverty, pain, and sufferings of the poor and the powerless, and has even committed injustice to his workers and tenants.
The virus is a tiny messenger sent by God to send a huge message; that we should all repent, ask for forgiveness, and abandon our evil ways. Or this health malady shall destroy us all like Sodom and Gomorrah, or down us like the flood in the time of Noah.