LET the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) change you for the best.
This was the appeal of Manila Archdiocese Apostolic Administrator Bishop Broderick Pabillo to the faithful in his homily at the Easter Sunday mass he celebrated.
The prelate noted that while the pandemic has brought hardship to many people, it also gave many people the opportunity to reflect and to focus on what is essential in their lives during the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ), which was imposed to contain the spread of Covid-19.
He likened it to the ordeal that Jesus went through this during his passion on the cross.
“This year the discipline of Lent has been imposed on us by the coronavirus. The pandemic has made us stay home. It has made life more simple. It has forced us to relate with our beloved ones. It has given us a lot of time to pray and read the bible. It brought the worship of God into our homes by online services,” Pabillo said.
“I hope we have undergone these disciplines not grudgingly but with a sense of inner liberation,” he added.
He expressed hope such values will not be lost once the ECQ is lifted and that people will live a new life, renewed, as it were, by Jesus’ resurrection.
A good way of achieving this, he explained, is to discuss with one’s families and friends these new values which one has acquired during the quarantine.
“So we have three weeks to consolidate and firm up the new values that we have taken during this forced discipline of Lent,” Pabillo said.
The ECQ, which was supposed to end on Monday. was extended up to the end of April to giver the government more time to boost its testing capabilities for Covid-19 samples and complete its large quarantine facilities.