A Vincentian reflection on the coronavirus
Monday, April 20, 2020
Victor Martell
My brother Jose R. Diaz-Torremocha, from Spain, sent me some thoughts that I have taken as mine because they are necessary at this time in which we are living: In the Gospel, we read: “When you see [a] cloud rising in the west you say immediately that it is going to rain—and so it does; and when you notice that the wind is blowing from the south you say that it is going to be hot—and so it is. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky; why do you not know how to interpret the present time? “Why do you not judge for yourselves what is right? (Lk 12:54-59)
This made me think about the circumstances that surround us today: the coronavirus, the obligation to be confined in our homes, to respect minimum distances, to increase our hygiene. Do we know how to interpret, as He tells us, what is happening?
This pandemic should make us think about the lack of solidarity that we suffer from, about our forgetfulness of charity and the neglect of our love for our neighbor. These separate us so much, despite living so close together and depending so much on one other.
Now that a relative loneliness, in compulsory seclusion, gives us time to reflect on what we are and what we need, on what would happen if the disease attacks us and we find no one to turn to or share the difficulties that we face, then we think of our neighbor!
That neighbor that we have forgotten, our companion in humanity, in life, in society, in culture and in faith in our Lord, who peeks out from behind our selfishness and the distance from which we have long excluded him. All of this demands that I “judge for myself what is right.”
We have not been able to foresee what might happen in our lives: too much living in the present and we scarcely prepare ourselves for what the future can bring us.
I set off! I am a member of the St. Vincent De Paul Society. I must join my brothers in the faith (with the due precautions required by health obligations) to work for those who suffer, for those who will have to endure the pain of losing a loved one, for those who don’t have anyone to bring them food, medicines or lend them a hand at home.
Let us be the humble servants of love, who accompany others in order to alleviate their loneliness and bring them, when possible, the presence of God with our visit, because He will be there and will help with the peace that His love provides.
That is why I am here. I do not know if I have understood well what I was reading in that Gospel, but I feel that those words, which are His words, oblige me to act, to give myself more, now that so many people need human help and God's peace.
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