Can we Look Beneath the Obvious?

Sr Christine Burke ibvm

Manila, Philippines, April 2020

What message is encoded in this experience? Across every nation the unimaginable is the new normal. Empty streets speak of fear. Lockdown continues - we do not know for how long. Important events are cancelled. Rituals cannot be celebrated. Stock exchanges tumble. Businesses close. Tourism is a thing of the past. Trade diminishes to subsistence level. Even Centrelink access is fragile, so fear grows among so many: will they or won’t they have a roof, have food, have help in medical emergency?

We react the way humans have since time immemorial: some reach out to others, some seek ways to exploit the moment. Genesis, and tribal myths of every culture, retell the same story of good and evil which co-exist in each one of us. The call is to discern. The courage and generosity of those who reach out makes those of us urged to stay inside feel grateful but also calls us to the honest recognition of our age and to realize that all we can do is pray.

A microscopic organism has managed to do something we have been encouraging ourselves to try to do for decades– and most of us have failed. To live simply so that others may simply live. We have been stripped of so many extras that seemed essential, forced back to the basics of loving those we live with, of recognizing what really matters, of trusting what we believe.

At this stage of our evolutionary history, we are hearing from the earth, from nature that ‘enough is enough’. If we believe that God empowers the transformation of our world from within, then something momentous is happening on our watch.

Life matters more than so many things we have taken for granted. How can we redistribute the goods of the earth, and widen the safety net, so that together we can re-assess our lifestyles? This is a question in the more affluent world. Here where I live in the Philippines, the questions are more pointed: how does one achieve social distancing when ten people live in one room? How does a nation manage with the social security system is minimal? How can one know how widespread the disease is when there are so few tests being carried out? Here we are good at enforcing lockdown, but other resources are scarce.

A microscopic organism has managed to do something we have been encouraging ourselves to try to do for decades – and most of us have failed: To live simply so that others may simply live.

As well as pleading for this crisis to pass, we are also called to look deeply at how we live, at how we love each other, at what matters most. Praying for the gift of discernment to recognize what this moment tells us about ourselves as individuals, as families, as societies could help us shape a future that respects our earth, all creatures and our fellow ‘earthlings’, since our future is intimately bound up with the decisions we make after this time of ‘fasting’ from the norm, from what feels comfortable, from what we are accustomed to.

The call to conversion could not be more timely. I wonder if you also find in the daily liturgical readings messages of hope and the call alongside others that echo our yearning to be deeply healed.