Introduction

I learned of the imminent community quarantine of the National Capital Region in the evening of March 12, a few hours after arriving in Iligan City for my periodic visits to my 92-year old Mom and what is left of my immediate blood family. With 48 hours before the suspension of all flights to NAIA, I realized that while the prospect of a 30-day vacation with my blood family was appealing, my place was with my flock and in my ordinary work. Cutting my visit by a day, I was able to get a flight back to Manila, also a few hours before the “lockdown.”

A big part of that decision was the prospect of catching up on the spiritual direction of the many souls under my care. However, the reality of the quarantine soon set in: if the greatest threat of the COVID-19 virus was contagion—which depended on transmission through physical proximity—then the best antidote was social distancing: to cut off the transmission. The positive experience of Macau, which achieved reduction to zero new cases after a total lockdown of just 14 days, in contrast to the epidemic in Europe due to a long inaction after the initial contamination, is proof of the effectiveness of this very simple (albeit very inconvenient) procedure. Hence, I find myself in a situation of relative isolation. Again, it would have been so easy to just settle into 30 days of scholarly work and a physical fitness program, both of which appealed to me greatly. But I guess I did not become a priest to just be a scholar and an athlete. Then some words of St. Josemaría Escrivá came to mind:

The plants were hidden under the snow. And the farmer, the owner of the land, remarked with satisfaction: “Now they’re growing on the inside.” I thought of you, of your forced inactivity… Tell me, are you also growing on the inside?

The Way, n.294

Those words, first addressed to me—not only by St. Josemaria but (in the intimacy of my prayer) most of all by Our Lord—I soon realized were addressed to all. Indeed, while this global pandemic is humanly speaking a disaster of the first caliber—some are referring to it as the biggest crisis of Europe since World War II—in the economy of salvation it would seem like a much-needed crisis. Remember that a crisis is the rethinking of a position that has hitherto been peacefully accepted. Now isn’t the prevailing world order in much need of a re-examining? Much closer to home, isn’t the way we have been living the Lenten Season in much need of re-examining? In recent memory, Lent has increasingly become a time of vacation, with Holy Week anything but holy since it is spent by going to the beach or enjoying life in the province.

Then the Corona Virus struck, and now the NCR is in a veritable lockdown. All of a sudden we have 30 days of forced relative isolation for the much-needed social distancing. Well, let us not waste these days, which for sure Divine Providence has not foisted upon us for no good reason. Nothing happens at the margin of God’s will, and God’s will is our sanctification. In my mind, the silver lining in all this seeming tragedy lies in a situation where we shall all be forced to cut down on external activity, lessen the noise and achieve the quiet that is much needed for an effective Lenten exercise. Divine Providence has provided us a setting for a real spiritual retreat.

Hence, this 30-day series of daily meditations. I call it The Corona Retreat.