Caring for Others

Something I read in the Globe and Mail this morning deeply saddened me. I know that people are tired of hearing and reading about the pandemic and what I am about to jot down is not what most people want to hear. I am writing this more for myself than for others. When something troubles me deeply, I feel the need to express my feelings in words. It is, in a way, a form of exorcism.

In an article entitled How much death, illness and disruption from COVID-19 infections are we willing to live with? the reporter states:

“Historically, society has considered the level of illness and death from a disease to be acceptable when those illnesses and deaths primarily affect the least advantaged, Dr. Smith said. When a disease is suppressed to a point where average members of the public no longer feel their lives are endangered, they tend to stop caring about it, even if it still threatens those who are vulnerable, he said.”  https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-how-much-death-illness-and-disruption-from-covid-19-infections-are-we/

What saddens me in this is not the fact that people have stopped caring about Covid-19. It is the question that it raises and is also implied in the last sentence: have people stopped caring about the most vulnerable? I know this is not something deliberate and calculated. We don't wake up one morning and tell ourselves, "Today, I will no longer care about others. Only myself." But there is a danger of doing that unconsciously.

I still wear a mask when I am in a setting where I can come in close contact with others. I do so because I know I am no longer young, and I am therefore among the “vulnerable”.  That, however, is not the only reason I do so. I know there are others around me and that I need to protect them as well, whether they be family members or strangers. After two and a half years of doing so, I am tired to the bones of wearing masks and being careful, but I have not yet grown tired of caring for others. I hope I never will.

The Blessing

I am rereading Ronald Rolheiser’s book: Wrestling with God. This morning, I came upon one passage that I had underlined when I first read it:

“We need to give to the poor not because they need it, though they do, but because we need to do that in order to be healthy. That’s an axiom that is grounded in the scriptures where, time and again, we are taught that giving to the poor is something that we need to do for our own health.”

The axiom Rolheiser states is valid for individuals, but also for communities as well. If we want vital and flourishing parishes, we need to put less focus on how the needs of the parishioners can be satisfied than on how they can be invited, equipped and empowered to serve the poorest and weakest in their milieu, those who are most often isolated, outsiders or even outcasts.

Charity may begin at home, as the well-worn idiom would have it, but it cannot remain encamped within its walls. The grace we receive within the community must flow outward. Water that does not flow eventually becomes stagnant.

In Matthew 25 Jesus, the King, says, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father…” This is usually interpreted to mean that if we welcome the stranger, take care of the sick, visit the prisoner, feed the poor, clothe the naked… we are blessed – the blessing is the outcome of our actions. But we are blessed primarily because we are given the opportunity to grow in love by serving others. The poor need us, but we need them even more. They are the channel through which the blessing is given to us. One could even say that the poor are the blessing because they teach us to love (and stretch our hearts until we can really do so) as Jesus did.

Little Green Antennas

Because I visit my brother in a long-term care residence, and because the government of Ontario has made these residences a priority in the vaccination program, I was offered the possibility of getting the Pfizer vaccine. I got the first dose last week. 

This morning, I went for yet another COVID-19 test and jokingly told the pharmacist who administered it, “I had no secondary effect except for those cute tiny green antennas growing in the back of my head.” His response was, “Don’t put that on social medias. The vaccination rate would go down by 10%!” It is, in fact, amazing to see how skittish and how polarized people are on the vaccination issue.

The pharmacist’s comment got me thinking: what could I write on social medias that would lower by 10% unbridled greed in our society, indifference to millions of people who live in poverty, the painfully slow pace of implementing effective climate change policies, the inhumane isolation of the sick and elderly, systematic racism and discrimination… You can help me complete the list here…