What Lessons Will We Have Learned?
Being at home and catching up on our hobbies and with each other has allowed us to read more, learn more Lenten recipes, develop our Scrabble skills, and discover how to use Zoom to reach out and “touch” others. The extra time has been a blessing to us. We have relearned the value of rest and sleep. Also, we have rediscovered our need for prayer because we can’t get back to normal and need guidance on what to do, who to turn to.
Overall, though, what will we have learned after this pandemic is all over? What lessons can we learn as we lament? During this Holy Week, what is God telling us? It’s safe to say that God wants people to learn to be more Christlike. Since this pandemic is worldwide, does that mean all people can learn to be more Christlike?
Let’s look at what happened in a previous plague when Christians were a persecuted minority.
The Cyprian Plague of the 250s swept across the Roman Empire. At its height, it reportedly claimed more than 5,000 victims a day in Rome alone. (Biblical Archeology Society)
The plague took its name from St. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, who wrote about the pandemic in his memoirs.
In his Treatise 7, entitled “On Mortality,” paragraph 14, he writes that the plague afflicted people with a high fever and a sensation of burning, causing “ulcers of the throat,” affecting the intestines so that food could not be retained. Many become deaf, blind, or crippled. *
Sociologist Rodney Stark, in his book The Rise of Christianity (1997), estimates that the Christian population in 251 totalled 1.2 million, about 1.9 percent of the Empire. The plague affected everyone, rich and poor, good and bad, and people of all creeds and religions. With all the plague’s inexplicable and invisible dangers, they were all asking, “Why?” Was there some sort of message the people needed to heed?
Instead of answering the question directly, St. Cyprian changes the question. Instead of the “why” question – which is the most difficult kind to answer – he reframes it as a “what” question: “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” He called everyone to be ever-mindful that any day could be their last day. Their ultimate search for meaning was to be found in their efforts to help the suffering and dying.
In paragraph 16 of his treatise, St. Cyprian writes,
“How suitable, how necessary it is that this plague and pestilence, which seems horrible and deadly, searches out the justice of each and every one and examines the minds of the human race; whether the well care for the sick, whether relatives dutifully love their kinsmen as they should, whether masters show compassion to their ailing slaves, whether physicians do not desert the afflicted begging their help, whether the violent repress their violence, whether the greedy, even through the fear of death, quench the ever insatiable fire of their raging avarice, whether the proud bend their necks, whether the shameless soften their effrontery, whether the rich, even when their dear ones are perishing and they are about to die without heirs, bestow and give something!”
St. Cyprian called the people of Carthage – starting with the Christians – to tend to the suffering; for families to love each other; for physicians to care for their patients; for the rich to show compassion for the poor; for masters to be kind to servants; for the oppressors to end their exploitation. He asked people to overcome their fears and discriminations and help one another.
Our Coronavirus pandemic has claimed many lives and has confined us to our homes, but it has also reduced criminal and other aberrant activities, and virtually wiped out sordid news coverage. In the Roman Empire, many awful activities lessened as well.
Just like in our time, people back then became more concerned with survival than with sinful pursuits. For example, the Empire had persecuted Christians severely during the 250s, but persecution abruptly stopped in 260 at the capture of Emperor Valerian by the Persians.
The plague had the effect of severely weakening the Empire. Many towns emptied out; the military, government and public works functioned with the barest of essentials. Yet the Christians stood out with serenity amid the disorder.
Up until then, the usual public response to a pandemic was to avoid any contact with the contaminated – perceiving that the disease was contagious. When people showed symptoms, they were often thrown into the streets to survive or die.
Yet Christ’s teachings were to “Do to others as you would have them do to you” (St. Luke 6:31), “Love your neighbour as yourself” (St. Matthew 19:19, Leviticus 19:18), and understand that “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (St. John 15:13).
As the Christians served and cared for the afflicted, a new admiration grew in the Roman citizens. Slowly, more and more of them wanted to become followers of Christ. By 300, there were close to 6 million Christians, 10 percent of the Empire. (Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity, 1997).
Christians had heeded the words of Christ. They had answered the call of His Church as affirmed by St. Cyprian. They had shown Faith as it gave them courage, Hope in the face of death, and Love as they acted with wholehearted compassion. They became closer as a community, forming strong spiritual bonds as the Body of Christ.
Though we all can’t be out in the community in this unprecedented worldwide pandemic, may we too be examples of Faith, Hope and Love. May we act to help those in need, if we can. May we pray for the afflicted, and the people in essential services, and for all the people in the world that they may learn to be Christlike. When people see us, may they see Christ and desire to become His followers.
But if we are having a troubles ourselves, locked away, frustrated because we can’t work and take care of things, may we “humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt us at the proper time, casting all our anxiety on Him, because He cares for us” (1 St. Peter 5:6-7). If we are in need of spiritual or physical care, may we call the local hotline, go see a doctor, or call our Church.
Whether we are home with others or alone, or lining up for food and medicines, or working on the frontlines, may we be praying for the fruits of the Holy Spirit: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23).
We sense much uncertainty in the weeks ahead, knowing there will be much hardship, and many people impacted severely. May we reach out to others through the internet or in person (if possible). May we not focus on our differences, but focus on the truth of Christ, and His commands to love and serve.
As St. Paul writes (1 Timothy 2:4): “[God] desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
During Holy Week, may we remember that Christ’s Resurrection is also a universal symbol of rebirth and new life and pray that not only believers, but also unbelievers, open their hearts and learn to be more Christlike.
* Dr. Dionysios Stathakopoulos believes Cyprian’s Plague (250-266) may have been smallpox. (See D. Ch. Stathakopoulos Famine and Pestilence in the late Roman and early Byzantine Empire (2007)