iStock/Karin de Mamiel

With at least some restoration in sight of what appears to have been our previous experience of normalcy, we may have some hope for a better, healthier, calmer future. For those who have been fully vaccinated, many are often no longer wearing masks.

For those who are able to attend Mass as a gathered community again, we know we have never missed anything so much in our whole lives. For students who hope to return to the school building in some routine fashion that represents their attendance prior to the pandemic, great anticipation of an uninterrupted school year awaits them. In fact, as we see signs of normalcy everywhere we look, we feel a sense of positivity and optimism.

Moving forward after these past nearly-18 months, we will be remiss if we do not pause and acknowledge that we are largely more resilient than we were in March 2020. We let things go more quickly and easily. We find ourselves making an insightful comment regarding an inconvenience by saying, “If this is the worst thing that happens to me, I think I can handle it.” In the past, we may have gravitated toward annoyance or anger, and now we simply regard it as a nuisance.

We would never want to say the pandemic was good for us, because it has taken a devastating toll, individually and collectively. We can say, however, that we have learned a great deal through the challenges it presented to us. Albert Einstein, the famed physicist, is credited with the statement that adversity introduces us to ourselves. Additionally, Froma Walsh, a social worker and psychologist, explains that our belief systems “enable us to organize our experience in the social world so as to make sense of crisis experiences.”

During this post-pandemic era, it will benefit us to examine our belief systems and what helped us manage the adversity we experienced. Reflection on adversity is one way to gain from the hardship we endured. Through reflection, experience becomes more than an event that happened to us, for, through the benefit of insight, the hardship becomes foundational to our belief system. It helps us see that we can persevere in the face of adversity. The reflective stance allows us to step back and evaluate the experience mindfully, articulating what we learned through the suffering we faced.

ACTION CHALLENGETake time this month to reflect on what you learned during the pandemic. Realize that with busy schedules, it might be difficult to find time to do this. Do your best with no judgment.

Investigate your favorite saints and learn about the struggles they faced during their lifetime. Identify the virtues they lived and attempt to imitate some aspect of their virtuous lives.

As Catholics, our faith is aptly positioned to assist us in this endeavor. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that it is through the fruits of the Holy Spirit that we are formed for eternal glory. The fruits of the Spirit are charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control and chastity. We develop these gifts through habitual virtuous living, which is a firm disposition to do good.

Reflecting on our belief system assists us to see more clearly how the hardships of the pandemic have strengthened us, as we are enabled to develop the fruits of the Holy Spirit, thereby becoming a more virtuous person. The fruits of the Spirit can be grouped into the four cardinal virtues: prudence, which predisposes us to practical reason; justice, which consists in the firm and constant will to give God and neighbor their due; fortitude, which ensures firmness in difficulties and constancy in the pursuit of the good; and temperance, which moderates the attraction of the pleasures of the senses and provides balance in the use of created goods.

Our Catholic faith also promotes the recognition of the importance of the saints, to whom we turn for examples of virtuous living in the face of seemingly impossible situations. When we turn to these holy, remarkable people to learn about living a virtuous life, we can be assured their struggles were not in vain, for they provide an example of strength and perseverance through their committed lives. Therefore, rather than quickly removing any reminder of the pandemic, it would be wise to embrace all that we learned through our struggles over the past year and a half, which will ideally help us develop virtue.

Soucheray is a licensed marriage and family therapist emeritus and a member of St. Ambrose in Woodbury. She holds a master’s degree in theology from The St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity in St. Paul and a doctorate in educational leadership from St. Mary’s University of Minnesota.