A few weeks ago, I read a brief article somewhere (I have not been able to find it again) that has haunted me ever since. In the seventeenth century, the plague broke out in several cities of France. As an attempt to control the spread of this terrible disease, plague victims were sometimes walled into their dwelling and left to die. Such was the case with one elderly woman and her granddaughter. Saint Vincent de Paul heard about this, went to her house, and broke through the wall to take care of them. He found that the woman was indeed dying, but not of the plague. She posed no risk of infection whatsoever. The child was not ill at all but would no doubt have died of starvation if Vincent had not intervened.
I can’t help seeing in this anecdote a parallel to what is happening today. Are we at risk of putting walls up between ourselves and others because of our fear of contagion? There is a difference between being cautious – and yes, we should be extremely cautious for our sake and that of others around us – and being afraid. Fear builds walls between people. These walls not only shut other people out, but shut us into ourselves. I pray we do not become a walled-in world.
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