What life will be like after quarantine
The coronavirus pandemic will not last forever and quarantine will end in due time. What will it change for us? Metropolitan Anthony (Pakanich) reflects on the subject.
For a Christian, nothing essentially changes. Life before and after the quarantine is based on the same principles and values. The world will constantly impose its values and rules of the game and sweep us off our feet under any pretext. So it was and so it will be. The only way to save yourself is an active spiritual life. We often replace it with anything: external actions, numerous conversations, any activity. We deal with anything and anybody, except ourselves and our own soul.
Such neglect of the main deed takes its toll. In any crisis situation, it emerges and manifests itself.
People leaving the spiritual life and Divine Communion lose their connection with God and are knocked down by the first storm. This loss is the main misfortune and tragedy of a person.
Everything else is temporary and unimportant. People who have lost connection with God easily give in to general moods, loses critical thinking, panic, and fear. They are unable to resist the slightest pressure, immediately surrender their positions, taking everything they are told for the truth.
For a Christian, the truth is one at all times, the word of God. For us, it is an unchanging benchmark against which we check our thoughts, actions, and conclusions. If the truth offered to us diverges from the truth of Christ, we remain faithful to Christ, whatever it may cost us.
Today's trials will pass, and there will be others. But the attitude to them should not change. The mechanisms have been the same for centuries. To tear the man away from God and His Church.
You can take away everything from the man, but you can't take his soul. The soul belongs to God.
And God will have the last word in all situations and with every man. The quarantine has exposed our afflictions. Each of us has their own. We have to find the courage to acknowledge them. God doesn't need our excuses, God needs our repentance. And if today's trials helped us better understand ourselves, it's already worth a lot. The main thing is not to forget the saving truth: there is no life beyond God. He is the Way and the Truth and Life.
