Page 7 - HQ May June July 2020

“What is the meaning of this pandemic?”

Regular readers of the maga- strikes him in the chest and cries out: ‘Wake up!’
zine, MICHAEL, are already ac- Wake Up
quainted with Fr. Henri Boulad,
a Jesuit priest from Egypt, who This pandemic should wake us from our slum-
has written some thirty books ber, from the lack of consciousness in which we
translated into fifteen different find ourselves. We needed a major blow to warn
languages and who has lectured us: ‘Stop! Where are you going? Where are you
worldwide. Fr. Boulad participat- running to? What do you truly want?’
ed in our September 2019 Study Through the window, I see cars speeding by on
Session held in Rougemont, Canada. (You can read the highway; hurrying in one direction while others
his commentary in the Oct./Nov./Dec edition of the go the opposite way. People are running. Cars are
magazine.) Please enjoy Fr. Boulad’s Easter Sun- speeding by. Put on the brakes! Stop!
day homily (April 12, 2020) in which he addresses We are spinning like tops and in the end we do
the call from God to wake up, pause and return to not see. In the end, we could ask ourselves whether
the basics during the pandemic, unprecedented in
modern history. we know what we long for and where we are headed.
My dear friends, many among you have been Time to Pause
waiting for my comments on what has been going The pandemic offers a time to pause, to put
on with the coronavirus. Many are wondering why on the brakes, to stop: stay home. Stay away from
I have kept silent on a topic that is on everyone’s other people. Do not travel. One ban follows the
mind, heart, lips, and on television. The reason is last. What might have been recommended by ap-
that I have been waiting. plying common sense and reason is now imposed
Why was I waiting? I was waiting because I upon us by circumstances. What laid hidden be-
could not see clearly. I kept asking myself whether comes visible all of a sudden.
there was something behind this pandemic, not in a The superfluous disappears as we think that to-
political sense nor as some machination, but seek- morrow we could be the next victim of the virus. I
ing to know its meaning. listen as thousands of people die of the virus every
Each one of you has wondered: ‘What is the day. I could be next.
meaning of this? It must mean something!’ Or you A Return to Basics
might be asking: ‘Why complicate matter?’ Yet, a During this pause we are invited to reflect on
catastrophe which has affected the entire world what is essential; what is important. Where are we
for the first time in history must have some sort of heading and why the hurry?
meaning.
“Consider a glass filled with water and scoria [a
You might tell me: ‘You will involve God in the dark coloured igneous rock]. When it is stirred the
story by saying that He is exacting revenge; that liquid in the glass is opaque. Leave it alone, let the
God is angry and wishes to punish us’. scoria settle to the bottom and the liquid will be-
Yes, I will include God, for He is not a stranger come clear and you will understand what I want to
to this; He lives this tragedy with us and if He allows convey.
it it is possible that He wants to deliver a message.
The same applies to our souls and to our world:
A Sign of the Times we must stop. May we be led to understand that
Vatican II invited us to heed the signs of the what we are now forced to go through, owing to cir-
times. Is there a sign brighter than this epidemic? cumstances, we should seek to do each day. Each
No, there is none. So what does it tell us? day we should take time to rest, contemplate, medi-
tate and reflect beyond the non-essentials that con-
I do not wish to give a definitive answer since I sume all of our time. We must set time aside every
do not have one to offer, but I invite you all to reflect day to focus on what is important.
and to ask: ‘Lord, do you wish to tell us something
May we fully accept the time out that is forced
through these events? What is your message?’ upon us and ask: ‘Lord, help me to see clearly; help
Setting aside wrath and chastisement, what is me to take advantage of this unique occasion to re-
the message? It is a call to wake up. The driver of a flect and to rediscover what is essential’. v
car who falls asleep can run off the road and break
his neck. The person next to him, realizing this, Fr. Henri Boulad, SJ

www.michaeljournal.org MICHAEL May/June/July 2020 7