By Engr. Egdar Mana-ay
World leaders, including our own, do not dwell on the theological reasons why this COVID 19 pandemic happened, wreaking havoc to tens of millions of people, because that would be entering the realm of religion which will be very controversial and bias. However, a Jerusalem-based Elijah interfaith institute through its director Rabbi Alon Goshan-Gottstein “brings the wisdom of all religion to members of all religion” to help others find meaning to the spiraling pandemic crisis. Online interfaith discussion and initiative is dubbed as “CORONASPECTION” wherein prominent faith leaders of a variety of religions grapple with thorny theological questions underlying the pandemic and dwell on the prospective shifts of community worship in a world of digital congregation.
Leading scholars of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism. Buddhism, Sikhism discussed everything related to COVID-19 from practical advice on how to conquer fear and build spiritual resources, to making the home and family the center of worship, to the power of prayer and questions on whether religious authenticity is eroded when religious practice moves online. The debates also do not shy away from the central questions pre-occupying millions of believers of all faith as the virus devastates continents, infecting 10 million with nearly half a million dead at the latest count. Is God doing this to the world? Is it a punishment? What, in heaven’s sake does it all mean?
The “Coronaspection” project touches on the challenges and opportunities for religious communities in the absence of in-person gatherings and worship, with the pandemic rapidly changing how religious practices are observed. Here are some of the religious leaders’ contributions:
Rabbi David Wolpe of Temple Sinai in Los Angeles. – “I believe that God deliberately creates a world of randomness. When people say, for example, ‘Why do bad things happen to good people?’ So, people would be good, but the good wouldn’t be for goodness sake. It would be instrumental. Why am I good? So that good things will happen to me. It’s pure reward and punishment. I’ll do these mitzvoth (good deeds) and when I do these mitzvoth, I won’t get cancer. Since I don’t want to get cancer, I will do this. But if it’s random, and you know that it’s random, and you do something good despite the fact that there may never be a reward, then it’s real goodness. And so the only way a world, I think, of genuine goodness, is if you create a world of genuine randomness.
Bishop of Canterbury – “I have a caution about getting too close to saying God sent the coronavirus to help people of faith get deeper faith, if you see what I mean. It is part of the space that God gives us in the world to live our lives. And as we live our lives, we live them through terrible disasters, through great triumphs, through moments of joy, through the banalest and mediocre moments. Whatever it is, we are always accompanied by God, we are always in the presence of God. We need only stretch out our hands to know that we are watched over by God. I hesitate very much to say it’s sent by God, or caused by God. It is the result of the whole brokenness of our creations which God redeemed.
UK Archbishop Welby – “I don’t think I’ve ever been so busy or so felt pressurized. We’ve closed all the churches in England, for the first time since 1208. Strangely enough, we got 10 times as many people meeting together online to pray as we had together physically, which is quite interesting. I mean literally ten times. We have about 12 million at the moment.”.
US Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf – “The coronavirus is deemphasizing the physical dimension and exemplifying the non-physical dimension of our inter connectivity, so now we can think of communities digitally, in ways we could not have thought of before. Is a mosque or a church or synagogue going to be continued to be defined by its physical presence or is it a community presence and now that we can do this digitally, how does this counterpoise the actual physical dimensions of things.
Rome Chief Rabbi Ricardo Disegnei – “By contrast compared to in-person communal worship to seeing Mona Lisa in louver with the online version is like seeing a print of the iconic painting in a book.”
Indian Islamic Scholar Maulana Wahiduddin Khan – “The coronavirus is not a curse. God Almighty witnessed that man is deviating from the right path of nature. So, He has given a warning. We have to take lessons and we have to correct our path. Then everything will be good. I pray to God that man should take it as a lesson, rather than a curse. People must spend this time to understand how to again adapt to a God-oriented life, so that God’s blessings can return to us again and that God may bring us back within His mercy as He already had earlier.
The coronavirus is going to be with us at least for another year or two. We cannot continuously put the public under lockdown. Life must go on. It is expected that as our government gradually opens the economy, there will be an increase in coronavirus cases. The only way to stop the spread of the virus is for us Filipinos to take the responsibility to wear masks, social distancing and maintain good hygiene. Just like the Israelites, we have also to improve our ability to contact trace so that we can be more efficient at isolating people who spread the virus.
The question really is not how many people have the virus BUT how many are ill and have recovered. The number of people tested positive for COVID-19 are just people who are carriers of the virus. The vast majority (99%) are asymptomatic or had few symptoms of the disease and are, therefore “healthy” and “not sick” people. As a second wave seems to approach, we have to tread the thin line of shutting down again or continue to open the economy, but this time with a more disciplined populace to adhere to mask-wearing and social distancing. And above all, we will take refuge at the word of God in Romans 8:28; “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose.”
