The Beauty and Challenges of Living a Community Life During the Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic which is causing a lot of changes in the daily lives of people around the world also affects community religious life. In many religious communities throughout the world, the missionaries were infected with the coronavirus and sadly many died. In my community where I am living right now during the pandemic, we are staying at home, spending extra time in prayer, doing many activities through social media for the online apostolate, and of course, attend online classes. Especially for me, who is studying nursing during the pandemic, I spend most of my time attending online classes and doing my school assignments. One thing I realized during this pandemic is that living in a community is helping us to grow in faith, hope, and love. Not only to love persons but also to love the little things in life through community. I know that it is not easy for us especially for those lying in the hospital beds, and for those who lost their loved ones. I can say that life takes us in different directions.
No matter how frustrating, confusing, or scarring this crisis gets, I believed that fear doesn't have the final word to say. Saint John in his letter reminds us that "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear"(1 John 4:18). What I have learned from this difficult time is that this pandemic may not be a good thing but it also brought positive things to us especially for those who are living in the community. However, I am personally very sad because of the loss of my brothers in my congregation during this pandemic and some of my close friends. I remembered the homily of Fr. Cesar s.x. my vice-rector during the mass, He said that during this pandemic, hope is built on the perfect love of Jesus Christ. This is why I believe that through community Jesus called all of us to share the love with the world.
Living in the community with brothers from different countries, cultures, and characters allows me to learn and grow as a person. God called me together with my brother in the community to fulfill different aspects of consecrated life like prayer, denying ourselves, the vows, formation, service to others, and in so doing we proclaim the Gospel. At this particular moment, I think it is time for us to meet the challenge to be what we are called to be, a sign and sacrament of God's loving presence to humankind. Pope Francis in his letter for the World Mission Day 2021, reminds us that the life of faith calls for a growing openness to embracing everyone, everywhere.
For the people, who ask me personally how I'm dealing with this pandemic in the community and how it influences me, I would say that it's important to live the moment without thinking of the past or the future. We must enjoy every single minute because every style of life has its challenges. Always keep in mind that Jesus becomes the foundation of every experience because it was the decision to follow the Lord that has brought us so many blessings. This pandemic has also taught us to enjoy the little things in life that we take for granted. We learned that adapting is the best form of survival from the virus Covid-19; we cannot predict the future, but through our faith in Jesus Christ, we believe that the future will be better. I encourage all of us to use the phrase (the future will be better) in our vocabulary more often, so we can see a smile on people's faces more often.