God never abandons us. God is not only always walking next to us, but God is also always inside of us, living with us in the incredibly beautiful Temple of our souls. In fact, if we can overcome our fear enough to remember what we believe, we remember the greatest Mystery of all time: God has not stayed separate from us, and we know that because "God so loved the world, that He gave us His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." (John 3:16).
Jesus said "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father." (John 14:9.) Jesus came above all else so that we would see in Jesus, in his words and actions, the Heart of the Father, filled with overwhelming and eternal love for us. Bishop Robert Barron says
"In his passion to set right a disjointed universe, God broke open his own heart in love. The Father sent not simply a representative, spokesman, or plenipotentiary, but his own Son into the dysfunction of the world so that he might gather that world into the bliss of the divine life.
"God’s center—the love between the Father and the Son—is now offered as our center; God’s heart breaks open so as to include even the worst and most hopeless among us. In so many spiritual traditions, the emphasis is placed on the human quest for God, but this is reversed in Christianity.
"Christians do not believe that God is dumbly "out there," like a mountain waiting to be climbed by various religious searchers. On the contrary, God...comes relentlessly searching after us.
"Because of this questing and self-emptying divine love, we become friends of God, sharers in the communion of the Trinity. That is the essence of Christianity; everything else is commentary." (Barron's Lenten Gospel Reflection for March 27, 2020.)
We know that God's Love is stronger than death, because, when Jesus died, his Father, Who is also our Father, raised Jesus from the dead out of love for him. Jesus promised us that if our faith, hope, and love stay strong, we too will be raised from the dead. Not only that, but the risen Jesus promised "I am with you always" (Matthew 28:20) right here on this suffering planet during our daily lives.
When we are living in a spiritual darkness, when we are overcome by fear and feelings of abandonment, God comes searching for us, showing up in our daily lives in a variety of ways. Love, Who IS God, is present in all the ways that we and the people around us are working creatively to stay connected when we can't be with each other face-to-face. God Who IS Love is inspiring all
of our increased phone calls to check up on people, neighbors bringing groceries to shut-ins, people taking more time for Facebook time and Skype time. Suddenly as society slows and quiets down, people are realizing that love, relationship, connection, are the most important (and God-Like) things in their lives.
In a crisis like the one we are experiencing, God Who is Love chases us down to nudge and remind us that we can never get through a crisis alone. We can only find comfort, strength, and the resilience to go on communally, WITH and FOR each other. Acts of love and mercy for each other show us, in the very acts themselves, that God is alive and with us, for others see God's love concretely in our acts of kindness, and we see the Light of God's eyes in our neighbor's face.
Remember, in faith, how, even though Jesus knew that people wanted to kill him, he still chose to go back to the city of Jerusalem where the Jewish leaders who lived hand in glove with the Roman political authorities, and who hated him, were lying in wait to get rid of him. Jesus deliberately turned his face and footsteps towards a city where almost certain death awaited him. He did this out of absolute and eternal love for us, a love stronger than his fear of death.
Perhaps today the greatest example of a love stronger than death is the poignant sight of so many health care workers deliberately turning their faces and footsteps towards hospitals where possible illness and/or death await them, and they are doing this out of deep, caring love for their patients. These healthcare workers are full of fear as Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane. But love for others overcomes that fear. Love is stronger than fear of illness or death.
In these dark days, we all are going to be temporarily overcome by fear. Often we are going to ask "Why is this happening to me? Why, God, have you abandoned me?" Your faith in Who God is can overcome that fear. Because God is Love Which is stronger than death. God is Love Who comes searching for us, even when we are overcome by fear. God is waiting to comfort us in the phone call from the relative or friend who cares for us. God is waiting to inspire us in the sounds of Italians singing opera from balconies, and New Yorkers cheering and whistling for their medical personnel from apartments in skyscrapers. God moves us to tears at the sight of young Doctors and nurses at work in hospitals often 24/7, caring for patients, God's love made concrete in the skill and tenderness of their hands.
No, we will never, this side of the grave, know exactly why God has allowed this pandemic to attack the entire world. But we do know what God expects from us. God searches for us not only to comfort us, to inspire us, to move us to laughter and tears. God searches us to tell us what God expects from us. God desires and expects to use us as instruments of His merciful compassionate Heart, for our neighbors, and our neighbors are the world. Because we are created, Jesus tells us, to be a world community, all of our lives interconnected. We are all parts of each other, as the Trinity is a community. Our very spiritual lifeblood lies in allowing ourselves to be blessed, broken, and spilled out for one another. In prayers. In words that can reach out to another. In giving of our time, money, and possessions. Only then can we discover God's beating Heart is Love Eternal: Love beating eternal in our hearts and in the hearts of everyone whom we reach out to with God's Love.
God loves you more than you think. God loved you so much that God sent His Son Jesus to come to this earth and take on flesh and die for you. God loves you so much that God promises you life after death if you have faith and trust in Him and love for your neighbor. And God does not dwell on the top of a mountain, far away from you. God walks beside you and lives in you and even searches for you and chases you down whenever you enter dark times and feel fearful and abandoned by God. Because God is eternal Love, you will always find God's Presence alive and at work in the daily events of your life. Even now. Maybe especially now. Whenever before have you felt so strongly that this world is one, and our lives are interconnected? Whenever before have you realized how much your family and friends mean to you? Whenever before have you realized that you cannot make it through this alone? That you truly need the people around you? And they, most assuredly, need you.
Whenever before have you realized how much God needs YOU to reach out and comfort and help other people? Whenever before have you realized that the essence of Love is courageous and sacrificial, as you watch people risk their lives out of love, as Jesus did? Yes, God, Love, is always with you, and Love is stronger than death, and no one is ever meant to go through this life alone. God is always with us, even in and through death, for there is new life awaiting us after death. Be an instrument of God's love during this dark time, and overcome your fear by lovingly being there for others.