It is freeing

As I travel through this pandemic, I find that I no longer have the same roles in my work; that life is just not the same; that I am gaining new perspectives on all sorts of things.  Do I find this frightening?  No.  Rather I find myself questioning what is going on , with the result that the word 'mystery' keeps ringing bells in my mind.  In the midst of all, I find this a freeing time, feeling freer than I have felt for an age.  Maybe the pandemic has blown that needed sea change my way, forcing me not to wait for making plans and preparations. Just do it!  

The day after I write this, my daily news briefing from CNA, Singapore, features an article entitled - "We are not returning to a pre-COVID-19 world".  It is the Singapore Minister for Trade and Industry stating that his island nation needs to map a new path now for creating a new economy.  This is our age.  Whether the individual, society or church, we are facing the opportunities and fears of building a new stage on which we are to live together.  This is more than a business or survival quest.  It is a spiritual quest.  

My experience of this pandemic naturally speaks strongly to me.  The real action of what I experience has been emanating from the grassroots and essentially happening at the depths of our existence.  

I have seen what has been going on around me.  What is it all saying?  I have seen leaders in my world being shown up for who they truly are.  If they are limited and chaotic in normal times, all they can do in a crisis is do what they always do, exercise control.  How could they?  I was taken into new ways of working from home and of livestreaming mass which I naturally found deeply spiritual.  These ways gifted me with a deeper sense of communion with others and a new contemplative perspective for life. I have also seen good leadership flourish in this pandemic, enforcing the right messages -  We are in this together/  Leave no one behind.  Human solidarity is essential to life.  The key themes arising out of this crisis consistently remain respect and responsibility. 

So we are called to new ways of being and operating.  I see these ways being based on spirituality and on the good of all, including me, upholding the rights and dignity of all, including me.  I could go on but I won't.  All I want to share is that for all these reasons, and more, this is a time when needed and overdue change is staring at us at all levels - for myself, for society, for church.  But much more, I find this such a freeing time.