See video: https://youtu.be/-7L0cO-ning
The great Teacher CORONA!!!
The year 2020 is gripped by the COVID19 and draining the world of its population and economy. The reason for the panic is because there is no medicine against it and no vaccine to prevent it. Self-imposed social distancing is the way to break the chain of this virus from spreading further. It looks simple but a very difficult regime to follow. People who are accustomed to roam around socialising in pubs and street corners are asked to be at home. How to spent time in the room is the biggest challenge that the people are faced with today. There are two ways of approaching this self imposed or government imposed restrictions of movements. The first will be to consider this as an opportunity to do things we had no time to do in the normal circumstances. To spend more quality time with your family and loved ones which will help to strengthen relationship and love in the family. To spend time with oneself in silence and solitude to converse with God and with ourselves. To introspect what went wrong in one’s way of living and acting. To look into what went wrong in the way we managed our “Common Home- Earth”. We have not listened to the sobbing and groaning of the Mother earth. We have not listened to the groaning of our co-pilgrims the “ Animal Kingdom”. We have behaved as the sole masters of this creation and the simple COVID19 is making us realise that humans are only one specie among millions and we are inter -dependent and inter-related. Humans are destroying themselves in the process of destroying this web of relationship with the Mother Earth.
A second way of approaching this crisis situation is as a curse generating lots of negative energy that the virus feeds on. Such people are unwilling to accept restrictions of movements and themselves get infected and pass on to others causing pandemic spreading of the virus. Not willing to sacrifice one’s freedom for the safety of self and for the society. We do not realise that my freedom ends where the other person’s freedom starts. This means I have only a limited space to exercise my freedom. This is difficult to accept and put into practice. The life partner and children often becomes the victims of their frustration and anger. Few countries have reported the increase in number of domestic violence and divorce during this period of lock down.
In India the central and state’s governments have tackled the COVID 19 crisis with utmost caution and prudence and introduced stringent measures to control the movements of the people. The state like Kerala has almost brought the situation under control. No need to mention the over population is a difficult situation to handle still the number of infection is under control. Besides dealing with the virus in India due to the large number of homeless people and those without savings to tide over the crisis the governments have introduced supply of free food materials as well as prepared food to them lest they die of hunger. These include the interstate migrant labourers who are out of work and no place to live. Since all public transport system is closed down these people are unable to return to their native places. We have some migrants walking hundreds of miles to reach their native villages and even few have died in this exodus. The governments are requested to provide alternate arrangements for their accommodation and food. But we still have people living under the flyovers and other public places. Simultaneously the government has initiated research activities to find the medicine and vaccine for the prevention.
The Church also has become proactive by availing their big and small institutions at the service of the COVID affected people. Since the present crisis is worldwide we can’t expect relief from the other countries. So we are making use of our meagre resources to mitigate the suffering of the poor and those on the margins. Many religious groups and NGOs are actively involved in collaboration with the local administration to bring help and relief to the broken humanity. In these days, corona virus disturbs our peace and energy. It is forcing us to leave our comfort zones and start thinking and acting differently. There is a new sense of solidarity and connectivity developed with God and people.
The selfless services of doctors, nurses, and health workers and police personnel working round the clock leave us amazed and grateful. They try their best to ensure good health, healing and safety for us at the risk of their own life. It is also a time when we discover the flowering of charitable acts. Each one according to his or her capacity, talents and time is trying to make life easy for these people. We recognize these moments as the manifestation of our people’s “golden hearts.” They appear under different covers with different ministries. The difficult period of the corona virus attack has produced angels to serve humanity. May God keep them safe.
Speaking in general we can observe 2 categories of people and government. Some took the present situation very seriously having understood the urgency of the crisis while others are taking it casually and not responding adequately to control the situation. Some actions are delayed and some decisions were overlooked. As a result the virus has spread but still considering the magnitude of our population the infection and causalities are considerably low comparing to some rich and developed countries. We raise our hearts to God who is on the side of the poor and the destitute and protecting them.
In our province sisters have more time together to build up quality relationship since all activities and movements are banned by the government. We are living the passion of Christ in solidarity with the broken humanity and we walked together to the Calvary. The world and each one of us can’t be the same after living through this pandemic virus.
Philo Thomas RA