Not a judgement, but a corrective

Is the coronavirus ‘God’s judgement’ to punish humanity for the errors of its ways? Surely not, and Bishop Brendan Leahy of Limerick is quite right to describe such ideas as a form of blasphemy. Pope Francis had previously given the lead in dismissing any such notion that the virus is some kind of Old Testament punitive plague.

However, on a secular level, perhaps we shouldn’t dismiss the notion of the ‘corrective’ element in this pandemic. As Pope Francis himself has indicated, that it’s a chance for us to judge what is most important to us.

My late husband, who was not a Catholic, believed, in a broader sense, that the forces of nature blow our way telling us when we are living wrongly. He was familiar with Africa and he ascribed some of the modern famines that arose in the African continent to western interruptions of a balance of life that Africans themselves had well understood.

In Ethiopia, the Coptic church had practiced a seasonal rhythm of ‘fasting and feasting’, whereby fasting seasons were prudently used to spare food anticipated in harvest times. Then the Western way of food distribution – from factory to supermarket to refrigerator, more or less ignoring the seasons – undermined that pattern.

The introduction, by Nestlé, of bottled milk for babies was another example: African women were told it was more ‘progressive’ and ‘modern’ to switch from breast-feeding to bottle-feeding, which led to malnutrition and child mortality. Bottle-feeding requires clean water and the sterilising of equipment, which isn’t always practical or even available. Breast-feeding had also helped mothers space their children naturally by an average of four years.

Yes, we must have development, and positive progress: but there was, I think, an element of truth in Richard’s view that many catastrophes are caused by the human race abusing or wrongly using nature’s resources. Houses are built on flood plains for profit; seas are over-fished; deserts are created by bad husbandry of land. AIDS, though an utter tragedy and affliction for many innocent victims, was undoubtedly spread by sexual promiscuity.

Our 
way
 of 
living

Perhaps the coronavirus is telling us that we need to check our way of living. The last flight I took – perhaps it will turn out to be the last flight I ever take – was from Belfast to London Gatwick, and a right ordeal it was, too: weary queues everywhere, grim-faced security, flights delayed comfortlessly, then passengers packed like sardines into the aircraft. And everyone so bad-tempered – a young woman at the Costa cafeteria in Belfast coldly refused to refill a water-bottle for me as it was “against security regulations”. I loved flying when the going was good, but I did ask myself – is this a way to live?

I dislike the current restrictions which have been imposed – who wouldn’t? – but the experience has certainly made me reassess my values. Too much of my life has been spent “getting and spending”, and this, as the poet wrote, lays waste our powers.

The virus is not a punishment: but it’s one heck of a corrective. Especially in the matter of the treatment of the old, whether in a care home, or being “cocooned” away from those they love.

Well it’s not ‘normal’ for me!

l Some viewers have been offended by the somewhat explicit sex scenes in the TV drama Normal People. I tend to regard such material as ‘age-inappropriate’ for my demographic, so I switch off. The book was well-crafted, though I found the characters shallow, yet some people think that it represents the narcissism and uncertainties of adolescence accurately.

It may be a consolation to those who feel that explicit TV sex scenes are unacceptable – considering the family context of the TV screen – that these are probably the last such scenes we’ll see for a long time. ‘Social distancing’ now forbids actors to be up close and personal in love scenes. Back to Jane Austen! Hooray!

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St Santán of Tallaght’s feast falls on May 9. He may have been of Welsh or Breton origin, via Howth, North Dublin. There are also links with the Isle of Man, indicating travel between these Celtic regions in the early Christian period. He was, according to O Riain’s Dictionary of Irish Saints, a saintly “sage, soldier and bishop”.