Someone up there is in control, not man or nations

There is no human power on earth that can solve this COVID crisis. Someone up there is calling the shots. Not even America, the so-called most powerful nation in the world, can stop it. Not China, Russia, the United Nations, or the WHO. The Omnipotent is sending a powerful message to this sinful world. We need to listen, reflect, and understand.

In today's second reading, St. Paul told the Romans that if you continue to live in your evil ways, you are doomed to die. But if you turn to him and live by the spirit, you will have life. Indeed, for many centuries, man has abused the world that he created. By greed, avarice, pride and anger, lust, sloth and envy, man has disobeyed the covenant between Creator and created. Man stole and ate the forbidden fruit, murdered his brother and stole his land and cattle. Man committed adultery, blasphemy, and idolatry. Man abandoned God and worshipped Satan's snares of power, wealth and the pleasures of the flesh. Man destroyed nature and devastated God's garden of beauty and plenty.

In Psalm 60:2, "You have made the earth to tremble, you have broken it. But it is you too who can bring healing unto it.” And, in second Chronicles, chapter 7, verse 14, God made a promise: “If my people who are called by my name, shall humble themselves, seek forgiveness and pray, and turn from their evil ways, then, I will hear them from heaven. I will forgive them and I will heal their land. And in Jeremiah, it has been promised: Behold, I will bring it health, and I will reveal to my people the abundance of peace and truth.” There you are. Just as God burned Sodom and Gomorrah, and just as he allowed the flood for 40 days and nights to Noah, today COVID is the new message, the new warning.

And so, the ball is in our court. We need to humble ourselves and ask forgiveness. We need to pray and turn from our wicked and evil ways. We need to embrace humility and abandon our pride, to live with kindness instead of greed, to have more appreciation instead of envy, diligence in the place of sloth, chastity instead of lust, patience in place of anger, and temperance and restraint instead of gluttony. The world is full of anger and hatred, war and revolutions, deaths and terrorism. Humanity has strayed from the straight and narrow path. Man has focused too much on himself and has no time to thank and praise his creator, his redeemer, and his God.

Someone up there is in control. Our salvation is in his hands. The healing of our land is subject to his go signal. He will deliver on his promises because he is faithful to his words. It is us who have broken the covenant. And so, it is us who should humble ourselves and ask for pardon. Salvation will come. But there is a condition. We need to amend our wickedness and go back as prodigal sons. We need to abandon all the wickedness of our hearts and turn to him, who is the alpha and the omega, the creator and the supreme judge. If we want to be healed, we need to go through this process of purgation.

At the end of the day, deliverance will come to those who accept that we are all blemished, dirtied, and need to be cleansed again. The moment we accept that we are all unworthy, the moment we humble ourselves and pray, the moment we ask for forgiveness and abandon our sinful ways, then, and only then, will our healing begin.