Date: March 21, 2020 ()

Bible Text: HOS 6:1-6 |

Series:

“Come, let us return to the LORD, it is he who has rent, but he will heal us; he has struck us, but he will bind our wounds. He will revive us after two days; on the third day he will raise us up, to live in his presence.”

The words of Hosea in our first reading today are unmistakably prophetic as it foretold the event of the resurrection. It was God who made a promise, and God fully fulfilled it in Christ’s rising from the dead on the third day.

The gospel story remains for us today, a story of hope and consolation. However, some disturbing questions may also drag us to doubts and fears. The present scourge by the COVID-19 may lead us to ask: Does God will all these deaths that have been going on from country to country?

We know that God is the author of Good and any form of death can only come from the evil ones. Definitely it is not God’s will to bring death to His people, but somehow God allows these bad things to happen not because God can’t stop it, but because God respects nature and our human choice.

But then again, we always are a people of hope because, amidst the atrocities of the forces of evil, God fights with us. He sends His Angels to protect us; He sends us saints to intercede for us; He sends us prophets to lead us back to the right path; He sends us kings with hearts like the heart of the Good Shepherd who brings his people to a greener and safer pasture. He ultimately gave us his only begotten Son to heal us from all infirmities, to redeem us from death because of sin, to transform our mortal bodies into like His—glorified and living in eternity. And the Lord left us his church to continue the work of redemption through the sacraments and the proclamation of the gospel.

Meanwhile, as we are facing the recent crisis, the greatest consolation we hold dear in our hearts is that assurance that God has never missed a promise. When God says: “He will heal us, he will bind our wounds,” it is just a matter of patient waiting, and then healing will surely come. This is our hope, this is our prayer: that one day, coronavirus will be gone!