A Saving Infection

Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be. Where I am going you know the way.” Thomas said to him, “Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:1-6)

This is one of the most meaningful and spiritually uplifting passages in the Bible, at least for me.  Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life.  Have faith in me.  Do not let your hearts be troubled.”   Our hearts always seem to be troubled and for good reason now with the state of our economy and ever-present threat of the coronavirus – an unthinking, incredibly tiny, piece of “machinery.”   A virus is defined in the following way (from Scientific American August 2008, “Are viruses alive?”).

“A virus consists of nucleic acids (DNA or RNA) enclosed in a protein coat that may also shelter viral proteins involved in infection. By that description, a virus seems more like a chemistry set than an organism. But when a virus enters a cell (called a host after infection), it is far from inactive. It sheds its coat, bares its genes and induces the cell’s own replication machinery to reproduce the intruder’s DNA or RNA and manufacture more viral protein based on the instructions in the viral nucleic acid. The newly created viral bits assemble and, voilà, more virus arises, which also may infect other cells.

Viruses, however, parasitize essentially all biomolecular aspects of life. That is, they depend on the host cell for the raw materials and energy necessary for nucleic acid synthesis, protein synthesis, processing and transport, and all other biochemical activities that allow the virus to multiply and spread. One might then conclude that even though these processes come under viral direction, viruses are simply nonliving parasites of living metabolic systems. But a spectrum may exist between what is certainly alive and what is not.

A rock is not alive. A metabolically active sack, devoid of genetic material and the potential for propagation, is also not alive. A bacterium, though, is alive. Although it is a single cell, it can generate energy and the molecules needed to sustain itself, and it can reproduce. But what about a seed? A seed might not be considered alive. Yet it has a potential for life, and it may be destroyed. In this regard, viruses resemble seeds more than they do live cells. They have a certain potential, which can be snuffed out, but they do not attain the more autonomous state of life.

From single-celled organisms to human populations, viruses affect all life on earth, often determining what will survive. But viruses themselves also evolve. New viruses, such as the AIDS-causing HIV-1, may be the only biological entities that researchers can actually witness come into being, providing a real-time example of evolution in action.”

Of course, now we have COVID-19.   Of special interest, the 1918 influenza infected as much as 40% of the world’s population with an estimated 57 million deaths.  Although we’re about 100 years since then, times are quite different although the world is far more crowded with people.   Then again, the 1918 pandemic occurred in the middle of World War I (a global war), and soldiers were spreading the virus globally. People also lived in crowded conditions and had extremely poor hygiene.

Whether viruses are alive or not is not the question.   Rather, we must answer the questions: Do we have faith in God?  Do we believe that in our Father’s house there are many dwelling places?  The answers are “yes.”   Regarding the latter question, each of us regardless of race, nationality, income, social status, or faith has a place within us where God dwells. 

We’re not talking about our concept of heaven; we speak of the here and now.  Each of us is God’s dwelling place.  That is the truth.  God is replicated in each one of us.  That's an "infection" that saves us.

Deacon David Pierce