We are struggling to stay patient.

Some of us are fed up with the government, whether federal, state or both. Some are fed up with the news media. Then there are other people’s posts on social media. Of course, there are all of the quarantine restrictions. And some of us are even fed up with the people with whom we are quarantined!

Pretty much all of us are feeling fed up with COVID-19 and its consequences.

Many of those consequences are devastating, even tragic. Around us we see death, grave physical and mental illness, the infrastructure of our health care system pushed nearly to its breaking point, and economic catastrophe.

Other consequences are difficult, or at least inconvenient. We can’t travel freely, purchase goods freely, or engage in the social activities that only six weeks ago we all took for granted.

People feel fed up with God for a variety of reasons. For some people, it is the rotten fruit of a difficult childhood. Others find themselves unable to cope with a series of tragedies or serious setbacks. In almost all cases, people who become fed up with God have a distorted image of Him.

OK, so when are we going to get to the good part? Isn’t a happy ending, a sound moral lesson, and a positive message a requirement of Catholic commentary? Yes, but there is one more negative thing to say first. And it is the most serious one of all.

It is almost certain that many people today are feeling fed up with God.

That’s not a pleasant thing to write, and it’s not a pleasant thing to read. But if there’s one fact of which the COVID-19 crisis has reminded us, it’s that life is often unpleasant.

People feel fed up with God for a variety of reasons. For some people, it is the rotten fruit of a difficult childhood. Others find themselves unable to cope with a series of tragedies or serious setbacks. In almost all cases, people who become fed up with God have a distorted image of Him.

What kinds of distorted images? To take just one example, it is easy, and tempting, to think of God as the supremely powerful therapist. He is there to help us become our best selves, according to our own self-concept. His job also includes giving us good, nourishing and pleasurable experiences, all as a kind of earthly appetizer for the heavenly banquet.

Conceptualizing God in this way inevitably leads to disappointment. All of us suffer, and it is impossible for this image of God to address the problem of human suffering.

God the Supreme Therapist is not the One in Whom we profess our faith when we recite the creed at every Mass. We say, “I believe in one God, the Father, Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth ... I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, his only-begotten Son ... I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life.”

God does not fit into a neat category of our own design. God is the Origin of all things, the Creator of all things, the Savior of the world, and the Giver of life and holiness, especially eternal life in heaven. He is omnipotent, omniscient, and entirely and supremely good.

Everything we have, everything we treasure, everything we should treasure but take for granted — it’s all a gift from God. This realization that everything is a gift must be the beginning of any reflection on the COVID-19 crisis. 

It is extremely difficult to lose people and things we love. But do we stop to remember the gift those people and things were in the first place? Do we give thanks to God for the gifts we enjoy now? 

God does not need us, but He nevertheless created us out of love and gives us countless good things. Our very lives are a gift from God. 

Anyone who has played a board game like Monopoly knows that every player begins with a certain amount of money. It is a given. All too often, we look at our lives in this way. We take the good things in our lives for granted, as if they were ours because justice demands it. 

Scripture reveals to us that only by taking up our crosses and carrying them, we are able to follow Christ, our crucified Lord. There is no other way. On the Cross of Christ, we see the perfect Sacrifice offered to the Father. We see the love beyond all other loves displayed for all to see.

Justice does not demand that we live or have any good thing. Everything is a gift God gives us out of His sheer, gratuitous love. 

The next insight our faith gives us in understanding the COVID-19 crisis is that suffering is the privileged path of discipleship and that death is the gateway to life. Those are very difficult truths to understand or appropriate. But it is the only solution to the problem of suffering. No other religion or system of philosophy provides a sufficient answer to the problem of suffering.

Scripture reveals to us that only by taking up our crosses and carrying them, we are able to follow Christ, our crucified Lord. There is no other way. On the Cross of Christ, we see the perfect Sacrifice offered to the Father. We see the love beyond all other loves displayed for all to see. But that love is not only displayed. It also calls out for our love in return. For the same kind of love. Self-sacrificing love.

And yet suffering is not important for its own sake. Suffering and death are the path and the gateway to life — true life, immortal life, glorious and even divine life.

The promise of such life is the source of our Easter hope. And we only have such a promise because our crucified Lord is also our risen Lord! Jesus is not dead. Death has not conquered Him; He has conquered death. He is alive! 

Christ is not only alive, but He calls us to life. That is the life-changing — better to say, life-defining — truth we celebrate this Easter season. Christ did not only triumph over His own death. He conquered death itself. He conquered death in all of its forms, including death caused by the coronavirus. 

Christ not only infused His own suffering with divine meaning and purpose; He has done the same for our suffering. He has not made life easy, to be sure. But He has made the difficulties of life, even the most grave difficulties we face, meaningful and purposeful, sources of glory and helps to our salvation.

There are lots of ways we can find small joys and comforts during this time of crisis. But renewing our faith, hope and love is the only answer to the real problem, the only antidote to the poison of discouragement and despair. We need to turn away from sin, offer our lives entirely to the Lord, and rejoice that He has given us life, so many good gifts, and the greatest gift of all, the promise of sharing in His risen, heavenly life.

If this was all my opinion, it would be utterly worthless. But it is the truth and so it is worth everything. In this most difficult time, may the truth be for all of us a source of hope and joy.