During this time of confinement we have all lived with a certain uneasiness and uneasiness about this pandemic: the uncertainty of whether we are infected, but we are asymptomatic; of whether the neighbor who greets us can infect us without realizing it; of whether I am going to bring this bug to my parents, the elderly, when I bring them the groceries... uncertainty knowing that a relative, a friend, a colleague, a neighbor, has been taken to the hospital and we do not know if he will be able to return home or not!
We have all felt in our flesh the poverty and limitation of not being able to help, of not being able to contribute more, of wishing to bring more people peace and a smile, and discovering that the situation has overcome us on many occasions.
We have seen heroes and heroines who have given themselves to help everyone to live the confinement: health personnel, cab drivers, police and military, people at work in stores, banks, trucks... and they have felt accompanied by our prayers and consolation. It has been a long time since we have been able to receive the sacraments of communion and confession. Yes, we have attended Masses online or on television... but we have not received the Eucharist! And the sacrament of penance... How necessary and what a relief for the heart!
We have felt in our hearts missionary compassion! Because what we have experienced is what Christians, our brothers and sisters, live in mission lands with normality: uncertainty before the fragility of their health; the impotence to change situations of pain and suffering; the impossibility, many times, to receive the sacraments frequently; the heroism of the missionaries and of the native priests and religious, who are giving their lives to take the Word of God and his infinite mercy to the last corner of the world. May this suffering of ours have helped us to be closer to our brothers and sisters in the younger Churches.
