When King Solomon consecrated the great temple of Jerusalem he pleaded with the Lord:
"When there is blight, pestilence, or locusts; when there is calamity and disease, harken to us”.
So, plagued by the coronavirus, we plead today, like the blind man whom Jesus encountered: "Make us see!" Yes, let us see how we have lived so carelessly, day by day polluting our home, the Blue Planet, exploiting, mining heedlessly, destroying woods and jungles, dumping rubbish left and right, enjoying the macabre dance of death with an excess food for some and famine for others, with an excess alcohol, and drugs to flee the reality of a society that couldn´t care less, harassed by corruption and injustice.
Let us see how we have worshiped the gods Moloch and Baal, gods of self-satisfaction, of consuming more and more, without any care for others. We have shouted: "I have the right to do what I please, to sex as I want it!: raping, abusing.”
We´ve wanted to be God just as we please, like those who built the Tower of Babel.
We have reached the moon. We have devoured the fruit of knowledge, and we know plenty about the planets; but we don't know, we are not interested, what the neighbour's heart feels, much less of those others of different colour, of different culture, of different religion.
We can walk in space.We can travel by jet and communicate at the touch of a key with someone on another continent –even if we don't know how to converse with the person sat next to us.
We know more and more, thanks to technology, but we are not wise. Now the plague strikes us,
and as in the plagues of antiquity and the Middle Ages, there is no lack of those who say: "Let us eat, drink and be merry, because tomorrow we die." There are not lacking those who take advantage of the need of others and raise food prices, charge more for medicine, and push up the cost of a ticket. Yes everything is more espensive and what the philosopher Hobbes said centuries ago is fulfilled: "Homo homini lupus - Man is a wolf to his fellow man."
But also, happily, there are those who offer solidarity and loving care, that help the most vulnerable. We must thank the doctors and nurses, the police, and the troops who strive to protect the population, without caring about their own lives.
Yes, coronavirus is a time for disaster and also a time of grace; a time of individualism and also a time of solidarity; a time of selfishness and also a time of offering a helping hand; a time to grab for me and also a time to give to others; a time that manifests the worst in human beings and also a time that brings out the best.
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