And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.
But the greatest of these is love.
1 Cor 13:13
IMAGE: Emergency hospital during influenza epidemic (NCP 1603), National Museum of Health and Medicine, c. 1918
FAITH
An Act of Service
To Quarantine Is Christian
Jared Lucky | Commonweal | 25 March 2020
Few Christians would ask for this cup, but we must drink it—to serve God by serving our neighbors, and to grow closer to God through the contemplation of death. Solzhenitsyn’s mission was not simply to expose the moral bankruptcy of the Soviet regime and the horrors of the Gulag. He was also determined to show how even the most inhuman captivity, the most unjust suffering can move us “in the direction of deepening the soul.” Quarantine is no Gulag, but it is a costly act of service that meets the urgent human needs of our neighbors. That service may involve going to work—at a hospital or a testing center—or staying home. But make no mistake: these sacrifices are not a surrender to death. They are a sacrifice to the God who gives life.
HOPE
Historical linkages: epidemic threat, economic risk, and xenophobia
The Art of Medicine
Alexandre I R White | The Lancet | 27 March 2020
When we think about the framing of disease threats, we must recognise that the history of international infectious disease control has largely been shaped by a distinctly European perspective, prioritising epidemic threats that arose from colonial (or now post-colonial) sites that threatened to spread disease and affect trade. COVID-19 is a serious and dangerous pandemic, but we must ask ourselves who our responses are designed to protect and who are they meant to vilify? In a pandemic, the best responses are those that protect all members of the population. A Eurocentric or US-centric view that excludes or stereotypes others will do much more harm than good. As the epicentre of the epidemic shifts for now to Europe and the USA and as global responses intensify, we should be prepared for more economic risk and confront racist or xenophobic responses for what they are—bigoted opinions with no basis in public health or facts.
LOVE
We Should All Be More Like the Nuns of 1918
The sisters of Philadelphia were lifesavers during the Spanish flu epidemic. They are an inspiration today.
Kiley Bense | The New York Times | 20 March 2020
While most people have no reason to fear the coronavirus, we have a responsibility as a society to protect and care for those who do have reason to fear it. The sisters’ quiet, determined selflessness is what is needed now, and what we will need more of in the weeks and months to come, not only from doctors and nurses but also from ordinary people, who will be asked to alter their daily lives in ways both large and small, giving up comfortable routine for the sake of the vulnerable, and helping to patch over the constellation of individual holes in our ragged social safety net.
One hundred years on, the work of the sisters provides us a model to follow and aspire to in this uncommon time: one that presses us to look for ways to support our neighbors rather than shrinking from them, to acknowledge our fears but to find courage in the strength of our communities, and ultimately to put others before self.
Postscript
Seven Acts of Love in a time of Coronavirus
James Martin SJ | Facebook | 24 March 2020
Wishing you faith, hope and love,
Rinald D’Souza SJ
HISTORIA DOMUS
For it is not so much knowledge that fills and satisfies the soul,
but the intimate understanding and relish of the truth.
The Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola, #2
How do you go about Faith, Hope and Love in the Time of Corona?
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