• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Effie Caldarola
          • John Garvey
          • Father Ed Dougherty, M.M.
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
  • Advertising
  • CR Radio
  • Printing
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
A medical worker in Stony Brook, N.Y., flashes the peace sign outside Stony Brook University Hospital April 8, 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic. She had participated in a "Caravan for Heroes" salute, an event that provided an opportunity for medical personnel and first responders to express their mutual support and appreciation for one another. (CNS photo/Gregory A. Shemitz)

From disaster, an Easter people rise

April 9, 2020
By Carolyn Woo
Filed Under: Commentary, Coronavirus, Guest Commentary

I start this column with a heavy heart. A classmate’s brother with the COVID-19 virus is fighting for his life on a ventilator in an intensive care unit. A classmate’s daughter Lizzie, an oncology nurse in New York City, stands ready to be reassigned to the care of pandemic patients. Our son Ryan, a geriatrician, has been exposed to infected colleagues and patients while staying on the front line.

Despite the chaos, deaths, job loss, economic hardships and massive suffering inflicted on an unprepared and hapless global community, the prism of COVID-19 casts shards of light that illumine certain truths about our personal, communal and spiritual lives: who we are, who we are to one another and who God is to us.

This plague has opened our hearts and minds to questions that we should have been asking all along: What is most important to us? Do we love well? What can we count on? What is our purpose here and now, and how do these relate to what God promises awaits us: eternal life?

It is ironic that the pandemic has come upon us during Lent: the designated time to give form to these thoughts through an examination of our self-centeredness, the gifts of ourselves we can make to others, and time carved out to talk to God. For many people, COVID-19 has made these practices instinctive, pervasive and integral to the way many of us now think and respond.

Being homebound, we discover new ways of being in our homes: not just shelter in place, but circles of belonging, love, affirmation and commitment. With so many more waking hours together, we make it through our cranky and exhausted moments countered by the gratitude that we are safe in one another’s company.

We talk, share fears, laugh, rediscover beloved games under dusty covers, travel on internet highways to aunts, uncles, grandparents, long-lost roommates, and somehow know, as Julian of Norwich did, that all will be well.

We pay attention to our loved ones, the little green buds on the trees that open a little more each day, crocuses and first daffodils in neighbors’ yards, cardinals, nuthatches, finches, juncos who take their turns at the bird feeders, and robins who poke their heads in the spring earth looking for worms.

Somehow the beauty and holiness of the earth shows what we do have: God whose creation shouts out to us how loved we are. We may not have a map of where we are headed, but we have the compass that points toward compassion and consideration as the way out.

Fear cannot hush us as we bang our pots, pans, walking sticks and fire pokers against metal railings, or sway and jive to joyful rhythms across balconies and apartment windows.

Against the threat of physical harm, first responders, health professionals, essential services providers, drivers, stockers, cashiers, et al., show up to do their part as we say “thank you” and desperately want it heard.

Nobody seeks the risks, but our sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, siblings, friends and people whose names we will never know do it because they can, and because our well-being is worth it to them. In our vulnerability, we claim each other, sacrifice for each other and know that we can only make it out together.

Another friend’s grandson Keane chalk-painted on his driveway, “Christ is here.” Indeed he is; he is risen and so are we. Our life here is not from life to death as we age, but from death to life as we grow in love and connectedness.

Print Print

Primary Sidebar

Carolyn Woo

Carolyn Woo, a columnist for Catholic News Service, is distinguished president's fellow for global development at Purdue University and served as the CEO and president of Baltimore-based Catholic Relief Services from 2012 to 2016.

View all posts from this author

Recent Commentary

How we live our lives on and offline

Who’s ready for a summer party?

A compassionate ‘yes’ to life

Prayer is the first resort

Appreciating good homilies

Recent Local News

Baltimore Basilica temporarily closes as precaution in wake of Supreme Court ruling

Pro-life leaders in Archdiocese of Baltimore respond to Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade

Cardinal says renewing Vatican II’s spirit can carry the church forward

Leadership transition coming to Baltimore Basilica as Father Boric prepares to enter Carmelite hermitage

Archdiocese of Baltimore concludes Year of the Eucharist with special Corpus Christi Mass

Catholic Review Radio

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • Baltimore Basilica temporarily closes as precaution in wake of Supreme Court ruling
  • Outside high court, joy, defiance and insults after Roe is struck down
  • Welcoming court’s decision, leaders say it’s time to build pro-life culture
  • Pro-life leaders in Archdiocese of Baltimore respond to Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade
  • Supreme Court overturns Roe in anticipated Dobbs decision
  • Pope to visit Canada, limiting participation to one hour at various events
  • Hope must prevail over Mafia culture of fear, pope says
  • Cardinal says renewing Vatican II’s spirit can carry the church forward
  • Michigan center is among latest pro-life facilities vandalized across U.S.

Search

Membership

Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2022 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED