What Will Your Life be Like After the Coronavirus?

What was your life like before the Coronavirus? Maybe you were very busy at work. Maybe you were very busy with your children’s (or grandchildren’s) activities. Maybe you are retired and you didn’t do much because it always seemed like there was plenty of time, and now you can’t do the stuff you hadn’t gotten to.

How different has your life been during the Coronavirus shutdown? Are you still going into work? Healthcare workers and grocery stores are busier than ever (we are very grateful for their work and care). Maybe you are working from home. Is working from home a good or a bad thing? It has its pros and cons. Maybe you have been laid off and find yourself with a lot of time.

If you are a student of any age, how is the online learning going? How much time does it take? What have you done with all the time that used to go into student’s extracurricular activities like sports and plays?

What about the time you would normally spend at church? Have you been praying at all? I heard Cardinal Dolan say that some of the priests in the Archdiocese of New York have said that in some cases they have more people watching Mass online now than were going to church before the shutdown. A crisis can lead people back to God. We pray they keep coming?

Maybe you have been cleaning the house. I know some people who say their house is cleaner than it has been in years. Maybe you have completed some longstanding projects around the house. If you are one of the families that are always on the go because of so many activities for your children such that you never sit down to eat a meal together, maybe you have shared some meals together and just talked.

Maybe you have used some of the time for some much needed rest.

If you have had a lot of extra free time, I hope you have given some of it to Jesus. One might think of some of the time as a retreat. A spiritual retreat includes some time to rest but it always includes prayer and perhaps spiritual reading to ask God to help you regroup and discern what God wants you to be doing.

So, when the Coronavirus shutdown ends, what are you going to do?

Healthcare workers and grocery store workers will need some rest but what about the rest of you? Do you just plan to go back to your old routine exactly as it was? Does that mean you will be too busy to spend time with your family or with God?

If you are retired and weren’t busy, is there something God has been calling you to do that you can start now?

Maybe you are looking forward to spending time with family and friends that you haven’t seen during the shutdown. That is a good thing.

If you are student or a teacher, are you looking forward to back to traditional school classroom? What about all those extracurricular activities? Are you going to let your life become too busy to have any time for God again?

What will your prayer life be like? Will you pray everyday? How long? Will you thank God that the Coronavirus shutdown is over? What about Mass? I know some people are eager to get back to church because they have missed the Eucharist. Have you? If you were a busy person who didn’t always go to Mass on Sunday because of being too busy, will you make it a priority to go to Mass every Sunday? (If you are able, how about daily Mass?)

There is no one detailed answer for everyone (it should include God for everyone). The question is have you given it any thought or are you just assuming life will go back to the old normal. Maybe that is what God wants. Maybe God says this is the time to make him a priority.

Even if God is a priority in your life, is there something different you might do for God? It might be prayer, reading, or how you use your time to work for the coming of God’s kingdom.

Pray and let God be your guide.

Peace,

Fr. Jeff