Parish of Denn.
Sunday 29th March 2020
Now is the
time for community solidarity – Fr. Brendan Hoban.
Western People – 23.3.2020
I’m ‘cocooning’ at the moment. I’m taking
the hint from Leo Varadkar that soon elderly citizens
with underlying illnesses – I’m one of those – will be asked to stay at home
for several weeks as the government continues to grapple with the corona virus.
I
want to get used to it because it takes a while for the elderly and the
vulnerable to get their heads around what’s happening. Instead of just getting
on with it and making the best of it we can fry our heads with questions that
no one knows the answers to: how long is ‘several weeks’? When will the worst
be over? What’s going to happen next? How long is a piece of string?
The
answer to all of the above is nobody really knows.
It’s
an answer that doesn’t suit us. We’re not used to it. We have tidy minds so,
like Dryden, we expect everything to have a beginning, a
middle and an end. We also expect politicians to lie to us, especially
when the lie makes us feel better.
But
things are different now. Varadkar is telling it as
it is, though lacing it with encouragement and reassurance, as he needs to do.
Like a trusted guide, he’s letting us know so that he can bring us with him on
a long and winding road. And, at the same time, hitting all
the right adult notes – hope, transparency, reassurance, telling the truth.
There
are three legs to this stool. One is that sacrifice in the short term will
slow, though not defeat, the virus. Another is that we need to be resilient in
the face of uncertainty. And a third is that the younger half of the population
will need to care for the older half of the population. For a change, the
minders need to be minded.
The
theory looks good – in theory – but, it has to be said, the signs are fairly
ominous. If oldies like me are expected to ‘cocoon’ in our homes for several
weeks – to self-care and not to take any chances with our health – and we’re
struggling with that challenge, the young will take even more convincing to
sacrifice their sport, the weekends away, the gym, the nights out, the pub and
the rest of the social outings.
As
we know, ‘sacrifice’ isn’t the first word on the preferred vocabulary of the
young who are used to wanting and getting their own way. Social distancing from
their friends has little appeal. Staying at home with nothing on the telly and parents on the sofa seems a bridge too far for
our hitherto cossetted youth.
From
Varadkar’s comments, it’s clear that this problem has
not gone unnoticed. Speaking directly to the young he suggested that every day
young people should ask their parents what they (the young) could do to help
them. That oblique, astute comment indicates that Varadkar
and his advisors sense where the fault-line is in the present plan.
It’s
taking the elderly and the vulnerable some time to get our heads around our
rapidly changing circumstances : the numbers with the
virus accumulating by the day; the challenge to the health system; the loss of
jobs; the debts that in time will have to be repaid. But convincing the young
to buy into the sacrifices they will have to make may be even more difficult.
Because
where the elderly can resonate with short-term sacrifice for long-term gain,
the young seem to have missed out on that particular weapon in their arsenal.
Entitlement to absolute happiness now and forever is a foreign country to the
elderly but part of the very air the young breathe because they have never
known anything else. Everything was always going to get better.
So
much depends on how, as a people, we respond to the challenges facing
us and whether our traditional ability to pull together to do what has to
be done will serve us in the days and weeks and months ahead.
At
the same time we have a history in Ireland of impressive community solidarity.
When young families lose a bread winner, people instinctively gather in
support: if a child needs a life-saving operation in America the funds are
gathered; if a widow struggles to cope with the loss of her husband, her
friends organize a relay of support for her; if someone is a long-stay patient
in a distant hospital neighbours will drive a wife or
a husband or a parent to Dublin and back.
A
stunning example of that solidarity was the answer the Minister for Health,
Simon Harris, received to his call for health workers to come forwards – 24,000
in one day.
In
the days, weeks and months ahead community solidarity
will be a vital stepping-stone in difficult times.
Another
stepping stone is the deep faith of many people who will turn instinctively to
God who in the midst of our distress is a firm anchor, when our courage begins
to fail a source of strength and reassurance and a comfort and solace when the
other stepping stones of life seem to be giving way.
Hope
is a recurring motif for the Christian person because even though we can live
without faith and even without love, there’s no living without hope. So what
we’re reminded to do is place our worries in the context of a God who loves and
cares us, a God who is in control of our world, a God who is close to us, a God
who says to us in the gospels ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled . . . a peace
the world cannot give, this is my gift to you.’
We
pray for that peace, for that solace, for that reassurance for our world, for
our country, for our parish community and for all our families, young and old,
at this worrying time. God is good.
God
helps those who help themselves, especially those who keep the new commandments
– washing our hands, keeping our distance and, for the elderly, cocooning.
Email: crosskeys@kilmorediocese.ie Website: www.parishofdenn.com
Fr. Donal Kilduff: 049 4336102