Bishops’ Encouragement During Covid-19 Crisis

by Admin · May 4, 2020

(Top row from left) Archbishop Abel Gabuza, Bishop Frank Nubuasah, Bishop José Ponce de León, Archbishop Stephen Brislin, and (Bottom row) Bishop Duncan Tsoke, Bishop Sylvester David, Cardinal Wilfrid Napier, and Bishop Victor Phalana. (Photos: Bishop Stanislaw Dziuba, Fr Paul Tatu CSS, Sheldon Reddiar)

Several Southern African bishops have encouraged the faithful to be strong during the coronavirus crisis.

Archbishop Abel Gabuza, coadjutor of Durban, said during the lockdown “we have witnessed the goodness in many people”. “The health professionals have been wonderful in doing their work, given the various challenges faced in each context,” he said. Archbishop Gabuza said that life must be “celebrated in whatever situation we find ourselves”. Encouraging the faithful, he said: “Wherever you are and however you feel right now, be strong and know that God is a ‘Wellspring of Hope’. God is the heart of compassion.”

Bishop Frank Nubuasah of Gaborone, Botswana, said “the poor and needy are those who bear the brunt of any pandemic”. However, he added: “God in his mercy has intervened in such occasions as these in the past, and he will intervene again.”

Bishop José Luis Ponce de León of Manzini, Eswatini, said that “no matter what we are going through, the Risen Lord always walks with us”. Reflecting on last Sunday’s Gospel reading of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, the bishop said when “they discovered that Jesus is risen, they chose not to remain in Emmaus but to return to Jerusalem, the place where they had chosen to leave”. “Being a Christian is not about running away, but looking at life under a new light, the light of the Resurrection of Christ,” Bishop Ponce de León said.

Archbishop Stephen Brislin of Cape Town echoed the message of God “throughout the history of salvation, in every era”. That message, he said, is: “Be strong. Stand firm in faith. Take heart. Have courage. And do not be afraid.”

Bishop Duncan Tsoke, auxiliary in Johannesburg, noted that “although separated during the lockdown, we are called to remain united in faith and to be in solidarity with the most vulnerable among us: the homeless, the elderly, the orphans, the migrants and refugees, domestic violence survivors, and all the neglected”. He said faith in Christ can “sustain and empower us through this difficult and trying time”. Bishop Tsoke said the Spirit of God calls on us to believe our God is still in charge even in these chaotic and frightening times. “God’s light cannot be overcome by darkness. His love is stronger than Covid-19 and death. Do not, therefore, be afraid,” he added. “It is important for us to remember and find solace in God’s love which continues to conquer death in our daily life. The resurrected Christ will be with us during and beyond this Covid-19 crisis,” the bishop said. Bishop Tsoke called on the People of God’s faith to give “a strong sense that we are not alone but interconnected”.

Bishop Sylvester David, auxiliary in Cape Town, said earlier this month that “we have domesticated the cross and look for it only in antiseptic places”. “The real cross was not perfumed. It was covered with blood, dust, sweat and tears, human suffering,” he noted. “So when we have to contend with sickness and impending death in the family, we actually live the cross out of the rocks of Calvary implanted firmly in our homes. It is through the cross, the real cross, that we have salvation,” Bishop David said.

At Easter, Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of Durban wrote: “I know some people regard the lockdown as a total disaster. They can see no good whatsoever coming from it. In a way, they are as negative and despondent as the two disciples on the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus. Everything that they had hoped for, everything that they had banked on, everything that they had invested their energies in, was over and done with. “That was their mood as they decided to leave the Church. But they could not have known and dreamed that Jesus would come to them at the very moment that they doubted him most. In fact, they had given up on him. That is when he came to them,” Cardinal Napier said. Jesus “comes to them and meets them where they are in their hopelessness, and it is from there that he begins to rebuild their lives and faith. He begins by bringing them back to the basics.”

The coronavirus will not have the last word, said Bishop Victor Phalana of Klerksdorp. He noted that in the State of National Disaster and lockdown, “we are in pain. We are grieving. Our people are infected and affected. Others are dead.” However, he said, “for us Catholics, the Resurrection of Jesus means that Jesus will go with us through the storm of coronavirus”. “Covid-19 will not have the last word! Christ calls us to life and he promises to remove the stone of this pandemic. He is the specialist ‘stone remover’,” Bishop Phalana said, referring to the Gospel account of the raising of Lazarus (John 11:39). “Be strong. I cover your family with the Precious Blood of the Sacred Heart of the Passover Lamb: Jesus the Christ.” “May the stone blocking your success, healing, peace, joy and courage be rolled away! Be free! Be delivered! Be healed,” Bishop Phalana wrote.