Obscure and Marginal, the Jesus movement, during the time of the First Century Romans, was not expected to grow or influence them, who then were the epitome of civilization the world had seen till then. Yet the message of love for one another that Peter, Paul, John and the rest preached and their disciples practiced, grew, not exponentially but remarkably.
If we look at how the Church grew over the centuries, we can see it was not a strategy or a master plan that worked, but the simple reality that the first community practiced the love that was preached to them and believed it was the way to live while Rome and its rich lived as masters in all opulence and luxurious glory of the time.
With the arrival of "The Plague of Cyprian (249-269 AD)" in the empire, the world saw the Romans running for their lives, abandoning their sick in their beautiful homes, selfishly thinking of saving themselves alone. The health facilitators and the care providers the Romans had tried their best but could not contain the disease as they themselves were getting afflicted.
While every one was leaving the city the very small community of the first century Christians entered the city and took care of the dying in a very selfless way practicing the love and sacrifice that was preached to them, often giving up their lives, getting affected by the plague and dying while the sick recovered. This selfless act of love and brotherhood during the plague and in the subsequent pandemics won many hearts and by the third century the number of Christians in Rome had grown to 3 millions in the empire.
Ofcourse in those days, the medical knowledge was not that developed and nobody knew how the disease spread. They did not know carers could be the carriers no matter how asymptomatic they could be. During the modern times, the development of technology and medical knowledge has taught the world many things about the pandemic and the world know how to deal with such a situation with well developed medical systems and personnel. In these days, we can, still, express our Christian love by maintaining the self isolation and preventing the spread of the virus through us, while the well established government machinery take care of the medical and other aspects of pandemic control.
Meanwhile, its still possible for the Church to advocate the long term goals of social justice, equal income, the well being of the prison workers and others in isolation, universal health system etc. We know, in some countries, the government employees and some others are paid full salaries for the month they did not work during lock down while many others did not have the opportunity to work and was not paid for the days they did not work as their employers confirmed they did not have any money to pay.
The way the Church (all denominations) deal with the pandemic and the situation will explain what they are and be the answer to the questions their detractors were raising in these very modern times.
