As Melbourne emerged from its recent COVID lockdown, Sydney, parts of Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory have headed into a new outbreak of the virus. School holidays and other plans have once again been ruined for many. It seems that just when we relax a little, the pandemic returns to bite again.

And yet, the situation in other places is so much worse than we are experiencing. We think of India, South America and even the UK and US. We are constantly reminded that the pandemic isn’t over anywhere until it’s over everywhere. Where can we find God in all of this?

Look for the good and there we will find God.

We see God in the selfless service of health professionals around the world. We see God when we see kindness and when we see creativity in the face of a COVID-related hurdle.

Instead of asking ourselves why is this pandemic happening to us, it is good to ask ourselves where can I find God in this? Because we know that God is present with us in every situation. We know that God became man in the person of Jesus Christ and experienced the deepest human suffering.  God knows our suffering and God never abandons us.

In the latest edition of our mission magazine, Society Matters, you can read the story of one of our missionaries, Fr Toub Anisong SVD.

Fr Toub belongs to the Thailand District of our SVD AUS Province. But in December 2019 he headed home to Laos for three months’ home leave. By the time he was due to return, the international borders had shut and he has not been able to return to his ministry in Thailand for a year-and-a-half.

What to do?

Fr Toub realised that by virtue of his baptism, his religious vows and his ordination to the priesthood, being a missionary wasn’t so much what he did, as who he was. He could be missionary wherever he was.

In the 18 months back home in Laos, he has put his skills, talents and limited resources to good use by building basic houses for a widow and her family and the poorest of the poor in his village. “It’s the poor helping the poorest”, he says.

He’s also given retreats for the seminarians and the sisters in his local area and he’s been looking for donors to donate rice to the poor communities during the pandemic as well as sharing his personal allowance with the sick and the poor who he visits regularly.

Others of our confreres have found themselves in similar situations in India and other places and have responded by being missionary to those around them; helping the poor, providing priestly ministry and bringing God’s love to those in need. Throughout our Province, in Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and Myanmar, missionaries have responded with creativity and pastoral care to the various lockdowns and challenges presented by the pandemic, according to their own local circumstances.

I’m proud of them, but not surprised. When we face adverse circumstances by seeking to serve God and serve people, much good can come from those difficulties and challenges.

Each of us is called to be missionary in outlook by our baptism. Let us pray that whenever we are faced with adversity we remember to seek God’s face. For there we will find goodness and love. And when we look for opportunities to share that goodness and love we play our small part in helping to build the Kingdom of God.

Yours in the Word,

Fr Asaeli Rass SVD,

Provincial.