Nuala O’Loan
Photo: Alessandra Tarantino The View
As I write this we are facing into what looks like a fairly bleak autumn and limited Christmas celebrations. Governments are struggling to reconcile the duty to deliver services to save lives and protect health with the needs to protect the economy, for without the healthiest possible economy there will be major problems. It is largely unchartered territory for governments. There is no route map for them to follow. We need to acknowledge that when we don’t like what they do.
What is really required is cooperation by each of us in the most simple way – by limiting the number of face-to-face contacts we have with others, and washing our hands and wearing masks to prevent droplets infecting others. The question is to what extent are we cooperating?
Seeing the pictures in the media we may wonder. There were stories over the last weekend of parties, and talk of the fact that some of these parties were First Holy Communion parties. It is to be hoped that these gatherings do not result in further cases.
Evidence
I was very concerned to see that church services have now been stopped in Dublin – there is no evidence that going to church is a hazardous thing to do. The churches I have seen have all had stringent regulations about where you can sit, when and in what direction you can move.
These meticulous preparations and the volunteers who manage them provide much greater protection than exists when we visit the supermarket.
Surely the Government should permit people to continue to gather to worship together in these restricted circumstances? Spiritual health is a fundamental part of each of our beings. It is vitally important for our mental and physical health – as vital as our visits to the supermarket.
As it is, we know that routine medical care has almost disappeared. It is hard to get a face-to-face appointment with a doctor, yet we know that people often disclose their greatest fears about their health only when they have reported a sore back or some less serious ailment.
Dental health services are virtually non-existent, and yet dental health is key to our general health.
Elective surgery such as hip and knee replacements and much other surgery is no longer happening. Those who suffer will continue to suffer.
Mental health problems are rising as people struggle to cope with the isolation, the inability to do that most human of things – hug each other, touch each other, even in some cases be with each other. We thrive on human contact and this pandemic limits the extent to which we can have human contact. Zoom and Skype and all those systems which allow us to talk to each other are limited – as those who have conducted virtual birthday parties for children and the elderly have learned.
Not everyone has access to systems which are good enough to enable those events anyway.
In some ways, some of our lives have changed for the better…we have found time to do different things when we could not run about as we were used to”
Now people are talking about very limited Christmas celebrations. Church services are back in most places, but we can only attend to worship together in limited numbers. Creative thinking will be required to accommodate all those who want to gather in the House of the Lord at Christmas. That can be done. Even in our own homes there will be limits on numbers, and on the ability of people who live overseas to travel home – the quarantine periods are probably not going to disappear, and a week at home for Christmas could cost two weeks quarantine at either end.
It all seems rather grim.Yet, although the numbers of those afflicted by the Covid-19 virus are rising much too quickly, the number of those admitted to hospital aren’t rising at the same rate. It will pass if we cooperate. All things pass.
In some ways, some of our lives have changed for the better. Many of us have learned that much of our work can be carried out from home, and we are spared the long journeys which were part of our working routine. We have found time to do different things when we could not run about as we were used to.
As we face into this bleak time, we can see the glory of autumn all around us. In the golden leaves, the magical colours, the evening closing in, we can see the hand of the Lord at work and we are on the journey to Christmas and after that to Spring.
Maybe this year our focus will be more on the coming of the Christ child in all his beauty”
Maybe despite the difficulties and suffering of the past months we will be able to celebrate Christmas better.
Maybe we will be more attentive to the needs of one another and find new ways to help each other. When we were little children, for many of us, Christmas centred around the baby Jesus.
Maybe this year our focus will be more on the coming of the Christ child in all his beauty to his mother and father, and to the world.
Maybe we will understand afresh the fact that for 30 years he lived a simple life in a small village, much as many of us live, and after that came the time of teaching and the time of the Passion when Christ died to redeem each one of us, and then the Resurrection.
May we know that we really are on a path to joy, a path to Heaven – let us each travel as best we can this journey of hope.