This reflection was originally published on May 16th, 2020.

With the COVID-19 pandemic, there are a lot of issues for us to digest. As Christians, how do we spiritually ‘metabolize’ this situation? St. Thomas Aquinas’ theological work on creation might offer us some things to ponder. For example, the creation of a cake has four aspects: 1. a recipe (or design), 2. ingredients, 3. a baker, and 4. a purpose (like a birthday or wedding). As a modern person, we would assume that the cake is created once its icing has been applied, but in Aquinas’ mind, the apex of creation for the cake is when it is consumed. Its creation is only complete when it fulfils its final purpose. It is made in love, for love, accepted with love, consumed in love, and becomes love. Hebrews 12:19 says, “Our God is an all-consuming fire.” So, for us creatures, the consummation of our creation is to be consumed by the fire of God’s love.

Modern culture overemphasizes aspects 2 and 3; it only values the ingredients (economics) and the baker (politics). Design and purpose are just optional extras created by religious or cultural factions as a way to cope with the world. If the current secular wisdom downplays our design and purpose, that might be a good thing, as long as the culture values the other aspects. But once the heat gets turned up with something like COVID-19, it can become terrifying. The fear may come from realizing that what we have culturally consumed has given us no nourishment to deal with the deep questions of the crisis. This can be the motivation to start a search for our real purpose.

Scottish theologian George Macdonald says that, in God’s eyes, experiencing fear is more valuable than pursuing a ‘feel good’ philosophy, since fear can eventually lead to wisdom, whereas ‘letting the good times roll’ just masks the inevitable arrival of evil. Wisdom can be defined as the ability to hold all four aspects of creation in proper balance. Maybe the fear generated by COVID-19 will be, for some people, the beginning of wisdom, or in other words, the seeds of faith.

As Christians, our salvation consists in being metabolized by the love of God which gives us the fortitude to digest the trials and tribulations that we are fed in this life.