The culture of individualism affects religion. People tend to think religion is a personal, private, and individual choice. Religious practices become more and more individual instead of communal. We can hardly see any communal religious expressions such as processions or religious festivals. Spiritual life also emphasizes more individualistic and personal experiences.
However, religion is never meant to remain in a personal territory. If religion were essentially personal and private, it should have a different name. Religion is essentially communal and public because religious faith is shared, expressed, nourished among people in the community. Although religious faith cannot be measured by dimension or expressed with quantities, it is never subjective. On the opposite, from the time of old, people have presented religious faith as objective truth. It is only in our times that humanity hears ‘my faith’. It has always been ‘our faith’. Faith not shared or communally examined is but a wish.
The resurrection faith of Christianity is also not a personal or private conviction. The risen Christ appeared to his disciples when they gathered. As a community, the disciples witnessed and shared the resurrection reality. The resurrection of Christ was not proven in the courts of the Roman Empire. In this sense, the resurrection faith was not public. Or we should say the resurrection of Jesus was not verifiable with material methods. It was a fact and reality but not a materialistic object. It was spiritual and heavenly. And the community of the disciples observed it and shared among themselves and proclaimed outside.
This pandemic seems to drive our faith into our personal and private space. Although cold winter weathers keep nature frozen for a while, nature does not die. It gathers its power during the winter while waiting for the spring. Under the pandemic, our faith gathers its strength inside. We cannot simply turn our faith into individual practice. Like the undercurrent beneath the frozen river, let our faith flow and connect in our faith communities. No disease, no shutdown can take away our faith because our faith is spiritual but also assured by the divine reality. The risen Christ is with us!
