Patience and Perseverance in the time of Covid
The super hero movies got it wrong. Think of pandemic disaster movies you may have seen. Disease threatens world, people drop dead in the streets, a small band of (criticised) scientists develop radical new antidote, hero, with small band of friends, utilise the antidote and save the world. The first step is true of Covid, but the rest isn’t. Scientists across the world had been working of vaccines for coronaviruses for well over a decade. The appearance of Covid just sped up the process…and, largely, they co-operated with each other. The application was not by superheros but by our public health system and the wide acceptance of public health practices by ordinary people – you and me. We may criticise and question how things have been done, and we have often been exasperated but note this. In terms of deaths per million, Australia is tracking 155th in the nations of the world*. And this figure is made up of deaths both by Covid and with Covid. We are doing better than we think.
It will be good to ponder this as your children return to school with a whole new set of inconvenient and sometimes difficult guidelines.
Where could we see God in all of this? Beneath the surface, sustaining your patience, supporting our resilience. What you are have gone through is not what you would have imagined of yourself two years ago. This pandemic has not been one of drama. It has been one of the discomfort of masks, the boredom of zoom sessions and the occasional difficult conversation with those who disagree with you. Yet you have persevered, you have been patient. God has been with you, and as this new school year begins with its own new discomforts, may you find God continuing to sustain you.
Loving God, you know the challenges we face in caring for our families with all the difficulties of Covid. Send your gracious Spirit to sustain us in wisdom, patience and love. We ask this in Jesus’ name, confident that you will hear us.
Sr Kym Harris osb
Tanby, Yeppoon.
