Staying behind closed doors may make us feel safe, but it keeps us from the people, the events and experiences that we need in order to grow into the selves we were meant to become.

At the Easter Vigil Mass on Saturday evening, Pope Francis delivered an inspiring homily in which he likened the experience of the women in Jerusalem to that of people around the world today as they endure the Covid-19 epidemic.

The contagion that matters most the Son of God will receive into his own flesh.

The core of the church is contained in these words of Christ: “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Mt 18:20). The church must gather, must be collected by the call of Christ in order to fully be the church.

A virus can keep us from gathering. A spirit-wound, it can curtail the sacramental life Christ gave us. But no virus can separate us from Christ.