With the Covid-19 pandemic there are a lot of issues for us to digest. As Christians, how do we spiritually metabolize this situation? The theology of St. Thomas Aquinas, on creation, might offer us some things to ponder. For example, the creation of a cake has four aspects: 1…a recipe (design), 2…ingredients, 3…a baker, and 4… a purpose (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’ scheme, 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. As an aside, 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 scientific culture over emphases 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 fictions, as a form of therapeutic coping. If the current secular wisdom downplays where we are coming from, our design, and what our purpose is, that might be a good thing in a culture dedicated to the “good life”. But once the heat gets turned up under us, with something like Covid-19, it can become terrifying. Perhaps the fear comes 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, "fear" is more valuable than a "feel good" philosophy, since fear can lead to wisdom, whereas letting the “good times roll” just masks the inevitable entropy of evil. Wisdom can be defined as being able 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. In other words, the seeds of Faith.
As Christians, our salvation consists in being sacramentally metabolized, by the love of God and that give us the fortitude to digest the trials and tribulations, that we are fed, in this life.