| Abstract: | This article discusses the meaning of Christ’s unifying and catholizing love in a time of COVID-19. The love of Christ is trinitarian love. It is the love of Christ on the cross. It is the love of the father, mother, parent who sent Jesus to the cross. It is the love of the Spirit who is also the comforter who actualizes, operationalizes, and makes tangible the love of the triune God. This love of the cross is a unifying love, a love that creates unity between God and God’s creatures, unity among God’s people and creatures, global and ecumenical unity, unity in diversity, unity in concreteness and visibility, unity not from a distance, but unity in proximity. This sacrificial love of Christ is a catholizing love, a love that brings into being the catholicity of God’s people and creatures; catholicity in all ages, all places, and in truth; catholicity as catholicity in particularity and not in vague universality; catholicity as partisanship for the sake of the universal. The time of the COVID-19 pandemic has intensified existing challenges and concerns. Of major concern are the increase of social alienation and social exclusion (local and global) and the decrease of social cohesion and social solidarity in a world of inequality. The well-intended use of the expression “social distancing” instead of “physical distancing” might lend momentum to social alienation and exclusion. |
