We must not squander the Covid crisis

As with a world war, so too with the pandemic that maims families and nations

As Winston Churchill was working to form the United Nations after World War II, he famously said, “Never let a good crisis go to waste”. With the Covid crisis creating havoc all around us, each community and even each person would do well to follow Churchill's prescription.

A common refrain in conversations is, "It'll be good when we get back to normal". But is it going to be true? So much of the lifestyle in developed countries seems unfit for purpose, if that purpose is to engender mental and physical health, happiness in the way of personal satisfaction with a meaningful role in society, and a hopeful mindview that knows worthwhile goals. 

Once again, for those of us bogged down in the mundane, a vision of what is possible when we decide to take control of  our life comes from Pope Francis in speaking this week about the aftermath of the pandemic. Several times in the past year he has returned to the theme of transforming whatever is not working in personal life and in the world's structures.

Pope Francis said this week that the world must not return to its “normal” way of life as the Covid crisis eases:

Only one thing is more serious than this crisis, and that is the risk that we will squander it, and not learn the lesson it teaches.

It is a lesson in humility, showing us that it is not possible to live healthy lives in an unhealthy world, or to go on as we were, without recognizing what went wrong. 

Even now, the great desire to return to normality can mask the senseless notion that we can go back to relying on false securities, habits and projects that aim exclusively at pursuing wealth and personal interests, while failing to respond to global injustice, the cry of the poor and the precarious health of our planet.

What does all this have to say to us as Christians?  We, too. are called to reflect seriously on whether we want to go back to doing what we did before, as if nothing happened, or instead to take up the challenge of this crisis.  

Crisis, as the original meaning of the word shows, always implies a judgement, a distinction between good and bad.  In ancient times, it was used of the farmer who separated the good grain from the chaff to be discarded.  In a similar way, the present crisis calls us to distinguish, discern and sift, in everything we do, between what is enduring and what is passing.

Pope Francis looked at "a world still struggling to emerge from the dramatic crisis caused by the pandemic" and said: "This scourge has tested everyone and everything". 

How we and the world respond to the test is crucial on many levels. The challenge is to not plod on as a victim of what life throws at us but, rather, to apply our will to create a new set of conditions for the well-being of our own family and for the whole human family.

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