We have almost completed nine months of isolation and distancing due to the Covid virus. This has been a long and difficult time for everyone. Each one must stand back and take stock over what we have lost during these nine months, and what we have to look forward to in the next seven months (about the time it will take to do about half of the vaccinations in this country).
When we take stock of what we have lost, it will spur us on to treasure and value what we have lost. Eighty years ago the generation that grew up during the great depression (1930-39) knew how important it was to work hard and build up security for their family’s future. The suffering of deprivation made them very determined to preserve the values of security for others (their own family).
Great good could arise out of the sufferings of this pandemic.
We have been deprived of our social contacts, family members, friends and the necessary and meaningful gatherings that we need to navigate life. We are ever so conscious that our grandparents are not hugging their grandchildren, our elderly and lonely parents have only one or two designated visitors, and we struggle that our family Christmas celebration may be limited to only five people. Our bodies and spirits cry out for daily social contact.
In all of our Canadian society we are painfully aware of the inadequate care that we are providing to our seniors in the long-term care homes. We have structured our care with the minimum of care workers. The inadequacy has now come home to roast and it is not pleasant.
The pandemic has brought to the fore the inequality between the various racial groups, the disparity between the lower wage earners and the newcomers to Canada and the long-time citizens. Daily we ae confronted with the shortcomings of our Canadian society.
Canadians who walk a spiritual life and are part of a faith community lament the absence of praying together, supporting each other and being nourished by spiritual worship in their own faith communities. This pain, this absence, is felt by all spiritual people, of all the religions practiced in Canada.
Now, what are we going to do with this pain, these gaping holes in our lives?
This time of crisis is very much a time of opportunity. As Christian believers we must ask what God is leading us to embrace.
Hopefully we will turn to a life filled with more solidarity with one another. Human beings only thrive when they are connected and supportive of one another. Hopefully we will work harder at building community, at all levels: family. This rugged individualism is leaving us very lonely and unsupported.
May our future be filled with a stronger desire and spiritual plan to build stronger bridges with our fellow believers, the neighbors who live right around us and all the new comers that are trying to make Canada their new home.
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