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Posted On 2020-04-01 In Covenant Solidarity in Times of Coronavirus, Voices of Time

What is the purpose of the Coronavirus?

CHILE, Patricio Young •

We live in the midst of an individualistic world where my wishes and will take precedence over those of the rest of society, where rights are privileged over duties. Where hedonism, greed and power for power’s sake are the maxims that move us. There is no consequence of life, between what I think, say and do, but justification of conduct. ” “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.” (Luke 16:10).

The Coronavirus has come to challenge this humanity, which is immersed in a tremendous environmental crisis, a reflection of abuse and depredation. All expressions of this individualism and selfishness marked by an economy that generates deep inequalities, that uses and abuses private property without the least awareness of the social duty to which it is due.

The pandemic shows us in a direct and effective way, a theological reality: that we are saved in community, not individually; that when one is contaminated, many can be contaminated.  It shows us a political reality; that life is made in society, that our future depends on everyone (we either heal or we perish).

It also shows us, socially, that the family, in any of its forms, is effectively the nuclear reality of society; it is our healing refuge and with it, our effective and affective sustenance.

Global Health Influences Stock Exchange Markets and Currencies.

It also teaches us that the economy is not an end but a way. It is contingent upon the health of all, as defined by the World Health Organization (WHO): “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being”. For the same reason, it only bears its true result when everyone achieves that well-being, and with it, health. If maintaining health affects the stock markets, international markets, raw materials, currencies and everything else leads to a global recession, we will have to suffer it for the good of all. It is showing us clearly that the global economy is in crisis; it is time to reinvent it thinking about the welfare and health of all.

There is no doubt that this pandemic crisis is teaching us a lot, both the world and our country.

In Chile we are involved in the so-called “social explosion”, which focuses its demands on human dignity and the need for a more supportive society, but which has generated great conflicts and divisions.

In the face of tragedy, solidarity emerges as a way.

The Coronavirus, like every natural disaster, has generated unity of criteria to respond to the pandemic crisis in our country and its consequences. Could anyone have suspected, just a few days ago, that the political and social forces themselves would propose to the government to postpone the plebiscite?

Would we have even suspected that everyone is willing to confine themselves to their homes and not call for marches to prevent the spread of the virus? Would we even have been willing to accept that the Armed Forces control mobility in the streets alongside the Carabineers?

It is in the face of tragedy that we unite to face it together. That is where solidarity comes out as the great path. Together we face them and together we move forward. It is time for the world, and our society, in this era of globalization, to understand that only together we can achieve a better future for all. That only by seeking what unites us and not what divides us we can move forward. Only by building on respect for others and for diversity we can move forward.

The Coronavirus has come to give us a great teaching; it is up to us to take advantage of what God has wanted to show us.

 

iStock Getty  Images ID:1135670850, LoveTheWind – licensed for schoenstatt.org 22.03.2020

Original: Spanish 22.03.20. Translation by: Maria Aragón, Monterrey, México

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