Life according to COVID-19

We’re now beginning our third week. Correction. We began long before but we didn’t realize. With all my heart I feel for all of us and especially those who are ill, dying and suffering economic loss and in a particular way for those whom we call refugees.

Scientists were alerting us much earlier but we paid no heed. We, human beings, made in the image of the Holy One, especially those of us who live in the Northern and Western hemispheres, are being forced to live differently.

Will we continue to live a simpler life so others may simply live? The Earth, indigenous communities, animals and all creation have been imploring us to do so for a long, long time. A butterfly flaps its wings in the Amazon and a storm begins in the Arctic tundra. All is interconnected and interdependent. All have the right to enjoy an abundance of clean air, water, nutritious food, essential services. Is the Corona pandemic teaching us what we wouldn’t accept? We are called to live Visitation beyond borders. We truly do live in a Common Home – beautiful Earth who is our Mother, our Sister.

Pope Francis reminds that “The Creator does not abandon us…humanity still has the ability to work together in building our common home.” (LS #13)

I try to listen deeply and pray with Marge Piercy in her poem Amidah:

…We will try to be holy,
We will try to repair the world given us to hand on.
…….Let us lift each other on our shoulders and carry each
other along.
Let holiness move in us.
Let us see the light in others and honor that light.

Praise the light that shines before us, through us, after us, Amen.