People
should be more concerned about the epidemic of fear than the coronavirus
outbreak, Bishop Pascal Roland of Belley-Ars has said.
“More than
the epidemic of coronavirus, we should fear the epidemic of fear! For my part,
I refuse to yield to the collective panic and to subject myself to the
principle of precaution that seems to be moving the civil institutions,”
Bishop Roland wrote in a column at
his diocesan website.
“So I don't
intend to issue any specific instructions for my diocese. Are Christians going
to stop gathering together for prayer? Will they give up going see and help
their fellow man? Apart from measures of elementary prudence that everyone
takes spontaneously to not contaminate others when you're sick, it's not
advisable to add on more.”
Bishop
Roland pointed out that during the great plagues of the past, Christians joined
together in common prayer, ministered to the sick, attended the dying, and
buried the dead. They did not turn away from God or their neighbor.
“Doesn't
the collective panic we are witnessing today reveal our distorted relationship
to the reality of death? Does it not manifest the anxiety-inducing effects of
losing God?” he asked.
Bishop
Roland said that “we want to hide from ourselves the fact that we're mortal,
and having closed off the spiritual dimension of our life, we're losing ground.
Because we have more and more sophisticated and efficient techniques available,
we claim to master everything and we obscure the fact that we're not the
masters of life!”
Coronavirus
is an occasion to “remind ourselves of our human fragility,” the French bishop
noted, saying that “this global crisis at least has the advantage of reminding
ourselves that we live in a common home and that we're all vulnerable and
interdependent and that it's more urgent to cooperate than to close our
borders!”
The bishop
observed that “it seems we've all lost our minds! And in any case we're living
in a lie. Why suddenly focus our attention on just the coronavirus?”
He pointed
out that in France
Continuing,
the bishop said that he has no intention of ordering “churches to be closed,
Masses to be canceled, eliminating the sign of peace at the Eucharist, or
imposing such and such a way of receiving Communion reputed to be more hygienic
(that said, everyone can do as they want!) because the church is not a place at
risk, but a place of health. It's a place where we welcome the one who is Life,
Jesus Christ, and where through him, with him and in him we together learn to
be the living. A church has to remain what it is: a place of hope!”
The Bishop
of Belley-Ars asked, “Should you shut yourself up at home? Should you raid the
neighborhood supermarket to stock up on reserves to prepare for a siege? No!
Because a Christian doesn't fear death. He's not unaware that he's mortal, but
he knows in whom he has placed his trust.”
“And a Christian
doesn't belong to himself, his life is given, because he follows Jesus Christ
who teaches 'For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever
loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it.'”
“So let's
not give in to the epidemic of fear! Let's not be the living dead! As Pope
Francis would say: don't let them steal your hope!” Bishop Roland concluded.
No comments:
Post a Comment