We are all going through a very difficult moment. Our Lent that began rather normally quickly changed into daily deliveries of increasingly frightening news about something almost none of us had ever heard of, the coronavirus.

 

News about sickness and death was followed by unheard of guidance to limit the numbers of people we contacted, to the shuttering of normal activities, to the shelter in place order. People are now getting tired of restrictions, especially those confronted with no income and severe financial challenges because of layoffs or business closures.

 

Even our Easter celebrations seemed strangely muted. Without being able to be present at Easter Mass personally, at least the family gathering could celebrate this most important day in our faith. And even that, for many, was not advisable or possible.

 

As always, however, our Catholic faith reminds us that we are not just individuals living in this moment that is ours. Our profession of faith is that we believe in “one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.” 

 

That one Church is not just one throughout the world now. It is also one through all time, backward and forward.

 

This season reminds us that Easter is the element that makes us one with the saints and with all believers. Following Christ’s death on the cross, it was His resurrection by the Holy Spirit that joins us to all who seek the victory over sin and death.

 

St. Paul reminds us, “If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit that dwells in you” (Rm 8:11).

 

The point is that whether our temporary earthly situation, like the current moment, is good or difficult we as Christians and Catholics carry within us a promise that we never forget. It is that all who have lived faithfully will join Christ and each other in a resurrection that rejoins our glorified body to our spirit after death.

 

Even more, our life, our faith and our hope for our coming resurrection give us a dignity that will be full then but which is part of our character even now. 

 

St. Peter reminds us, “you are ‘a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of His own, so that you may announce the praises’ of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light. Once you were ‘no people’ but now you are God’s people; you ‘had not received mercy’ but now you have received mercy” (2 Pt 2: 9-10).

 

To know that we are chosen, royal and holy is a great gift and consolation. But it also deeply resonates in us as a profound responsibility. We must now live up to those gifts, to that calling.

 

Is our daily prayer and sacramental life reflective of that relation to Christ? Is our moral life, especially in the midst of a society so marked by the sexual revolution, consistent with holiness and the royalty of being destined for God’s eternal Kingdom? Is our generosity and charity a sign of those who have been chosen by Christ?

 

Knowing that we are called to be chosen, royal and holy, all in the context of Christ, gives our response to the current challenges a very different meaning. 

 

Even as we suffer and worry, we are confident. Jesus has called us and has bestowed on us even now the dignity of those who don’t live only for today or only for this world. We live with our hearts set on our own resurrection.