In the last week, the threat of the coronavirus has captured all our attention and possibly all our worries as well.  And rightfully so.  It is something for which we should take certain actions.  In the midst of the threat, we should not lose ourselves as a people of faith.  The potential is that when we focus on and worry about things like the coronavirus, often our faith can fade into the background.  Looking at the Church’s history, there are two types of saints that can help us and even inspire us:  martyrs and the Desert Fathers.

First, the martyrs have a lot to say to us on how to live the faith in times of crisis.  A martyr is a witness to the truth of the faith, in which they endure even death to be faithful to Christ (CCC 2473).  The importance of their witness is to remind us of how important the Faith is to our eternal soul.  In the early Church, even believing in the Faith was considered to be illegal by the Romans.  They would kill any Christian for their faith.  Most were given the choice to worship the Romans gods and deny Faith or face gruesome execution.  Ignatius of Antioch was arrested and taken to Rome to be devoured by lions.  Saints Perpetua and Felicity were tortured (and Felicity was tortured during pregnancy) before being executed by gladiators in the arena.  Our parish patron, St. Paul, was arrested many times before being executed in Rome by beheading.  St. Peter, who denied Christ the night of Jesus’s arrest, had the courage of Faith to be crucified upside down.  All of these saints witness to the same message:  they would rather die living for their Faith and for Christ than to live without Him.  And in times when the coronavirus threatens us and Masses are being restricted, fear could quite possibly be our focus. The saints are our witness to how to live the Faith in one of the greatest fears of all: bodily death.  In facing fear, let us look to God to give us the strength to keep the Faith.  Keep in mind that martyrdom is not something to be sought for the glory.  It is endured for some who seek to live the Faith.

The second type of saint that can inspire us during these times are the Desert Fathers.  Once Christianity was legalized by Constantine, the time of the martyrs ended.  Christians were now welcome into the world, thus they had to find new ways to live out the faith.  This is when many took to the deserts to live in solitude with God.  With social distancing, quarantining and restrictions to public gathering, we can also look to the saints for inspiration.  In fact, many of us will have a responsibility to go into isolation.  If a person is sick, they should not expose others to their illness whether it is the coronavirus or something else.  If one were to attend Mass while sick because of their love for the Eucharist but expose everyone else there to the virus, they would violate the second part of the Great Commandment to love one’s neighbor.  The physical responsibility to society extends to the spiritual realm.  Many have also gone into isolation due to high risk factors.  Even those who have encounters with those at high risk must take precautions, and I would recognize this as the Lord giving us wisdom in our choices.  Care must be taken to ensure that the isolation does not slip into sloth, which can easily happen when we spend the majority of our time at home.  How to we make sure our isolation becomes solitude?  Let’s look at the Desert Fathers.

The most important figure was St. Anthony of the Desert.  His parents died when he was 18, and he inherited a massive fortune.  One day at Church he heard the Gospel message, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” (Matthew 19:21)  Upon hearing the passage, Anthony sold everything and went to the desert to be with Christ.  It was there he became a hermit living off the little food and water he could find.  Though he possessed nothing, his spirituality exploded, and he drew closer to Christ.  He wrestled with the devil and sought to overcome temptation and sin.  He reflected on the Scriptures.  He found once he was stripped of all worldly delights and all worldly anxieties, he could focus completely on God.  He shows us a path to sainthood in the solitude of the isolation to enter deeper into prayer and fasting.  So this time is not the time to allow our Lenten practices to depart from us.  It is time for us to enter deeper into them through the witness of St. Anthony.  Men were not the only ones who went into the desert.  St. Mary of Egypt was one of the early Desert Mothers.  According to tradition, before she went into the desert, she was a famous singer and actress.  Celebrity lifestyle led to much temptation and sinful living.  She had a conversion when praying before an icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and from the encounter she went into the desert isolating from everyone for 47 years.  The only reason we know of her life is St. Cyryacus found her living in the desert, and he brought her Communion once a year up to her death.  She went into the desert as an act of penance for her sins.  She teaches us that even in isolation from the world, we are still called to penance and shown the fruitfulness of the penance. 

The two types of saints both teach us something during this time of the coronavirus.  The martyrs remind us that faith is the most important thing in our lives for the sake of our eternal soul.  Keeping the faith is more important than even physical death.  They faced death to live life as a Christian.  Let us keep that importance in our lives.  The Desert Fathers and Mothers show us isolation can become solitude.  Being separated from the world could bear much fruit in our Lenten practices of prayer, fasting, and penance.  As the saints are our witnesses today, let us learn from them and be a witness to the world of our faith.