So in my last post, I sort of veered off course. I was going to talk about the message from the Gospel reading for that Sunday and how it is kind of appropriate for the times we are living in, but I got sidetracked. I guess the Holy Spirit decided to take over my fingers.

The grass withers, and the flower falls,  but the word of the Lord abides for ever. –

The Holy Bible. (2006). (Revised Standard Version; Second Catholic Edition, 1 Pe 1:24–25). San Francisco: Ignatius Press.

There are so many passages in scripture that are timeless, that pertain to the world we live in today even though they were written over two thousand years ago. I am going to try and look at some of these over the next few weeks to see what we can learn from them. Of course, every time I say I am going to do some kind of series I never seem to get very far, but at least I keep trying.

I should also say this won’t be an end-of-the-world series of posts. I don’t know when the end times will be, no one other than God knows that. Are some of the signs Jesus tells us to look for in the likes of Luke 17 starting at verse 22 for example. showing up? I’ll let you decide.  

The first point we all need to agree on is that God’s Word is the truth and it doesn’t change. There are many people who would like to change scripture to make it read the way they want it, to “modernize” it if you will. A perfect example is the so-called same-sex marriage. God tells us that marriage is between a man and a woman. There is no other way to interpret that. It’s kind of hard for same-sex couples to “be fruitful and multiply”. This is the main reason I stuck with the Catholic Church when I began my journey back to religion. The Catholic Church has stuck with its teachings since its inception. What Jesus taught two thousand years ago is still true today. 

Even though I said this isn’t going to be an end of the world type post, let’s take a look at the passage from Luke I referenced above, Luke 17:22 – 37. Look at these two lines:

“I tell you, in that night there will be two men in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. There will be two women grinding together; one will be taken and the other left.”

Isn’t this is what is happening today? One person, a wife or a husband, is struck with the virus and passes away, while the other is perfectly healthy. So far it seems the coronavirus is indiscriminately choosing its victims. Who will get it, who won’t? Do you show signs or not? Can you have it and pass it along if you don’t have any f the symptoms?  These are all things we still don’t know and therefore we don’t know who will be next. One will be taken and the other left. 

What can we do? The obvious answer is we need to pray. But I also think there is more to it than that. We need to understand one very important thing about this pandemic, something that is very hard for most of us to grasp. God is in control, we aren’t. 

We are so used to thinking we are in control of everything in our lives when really we are in control of very little if anything at all. God is in control. Did he cause this? No, I don’t believe so, God won’t do anything to hurt us. Did he allow this to happen? Yes, I think so. As I brought up in my last post, God has been trying to tell us a whole lot of things lately. He isn’t pleased with the fact we have replaced him with other idols, put other things before him in our lives. We have become an immoral, materialistic world, a world that really doesn’t care about others but only ourselves and what is good for us. 

Can God end this, and more importantly, will he? Yes, he can certainly end it when he is ready, and he will. But first, he needs to see a change in us. He needs to see honest to goodness changes in how we live our lives. This has started a little bit. We see some good coming from this. People are helping those who can’t help themselves. There are people who are going and above and beyond the call of duty. And this needs to continue after the pandemic is over. But it is only one step of many that are needed. We also need to bring God back into our lives. We need to put him first.