Sr. Mª del Prado Garrido, OP
Dominicas del Santísimo Sacramento, Spain
On March 14th, when we were notified that the « state of alert » would begin the next day, there was no indication of the events that occurred from that point on.
As LENT had just begun, we entered it thinking that we had in our favour all the necessary conditions to overcome these forty days in the desert with Jesus and, at the same time, to put into practice the message of Pope Francis: « Lent is a time to rediscover the direction of life » (06/03/2019).
And my goodness, it was! We began to realise that this new situation was becoming serious. The number of infected people was growing dramatically, hospitals were filling up with patients who needed respiratory assistance, the ICU’s were overcrowded, medical staff was increasing in number, as were humanitarian and voluntary organisations, but above all in terms of VOCATION. Their courage and dedication were the most precious weapons to meet every patient who needed their attention. The number of deaths began to impress us a little more each day.
Faced with this panorama, it was unquestionable to think that we were beginning to walk on the dry land of the Judean desert, where man experiences his vulnerability and moves forward stripping himself of everything, he has to get closer to God. In a way, all this whirlwind of events invited us to meditate, with gratitude, on the miracle of our existence and the gifts we receive every day.
However, we had to keep on walking. Fatigue, anxiety, … we could not turn them into obstacles that would diminish our strength, but on the contrary, this journey prepared us to discover « the new reality », to look for alternatives to the lifestyle we had led before, to live the insecurity of not knowing how this situation would be resolved and to put aside doubt and uncertainty to allow ourselves to be instructed by the MASTER. We went up to Jerusalem. Jesus was walking in front of us, but we were so surprised by His words that we were unable to understand everything He wanted to tell us. He only asked us to repeat with the psalmist: « Show me Your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths ».
We discovered that God’s ways are not ours. And in spite of this misunderstanding, it was inevitable to think of all the people who at that moment would have rushed to Him to touch His mantle and be healed. They would have wanted to hear a word, a breath of life that would have given them confidence, calm, tranquillity, peace, mercy, and love.
The need to glimpse a great light on the road ahead demanded that we relegate to another place the feeling of loneliness that had been created by the isolation associated with the unpleasantness of not being able to see our loved ones and the sadness of having to « send » our family members and friends away. All of this had turned into heavy stones that were difficult to move.
But the time had come for us to take the solid rock of our faith and go and remove the slab that was preventing us from moving forward in search of a new path in the long-awaited « new normal ». We had to let the radiance of hope in the Risen Jesus move our hearts and make everything new. We were entering a new stage in this long process, sometimes tired and waiting for the new things we would find. But our mission is to integrate ourselves into it without losing our serenity, nor the inner harmony, and even less the feeling that Jesus accompanies us, that He has been our companion on our journey in this time of confinement. It is only a matter of letting ourselves be held by Jesus on one side and Mary on the other. Thus, we can walk with the certainty that we are not walking alone in this ordeal.