I don’t know how you are dealing with the emotional and physical demands of this trouble time of coronavirus…but I am sure it has turned much of your life upside down.
So many of the ways we have lived and studied and enjoyed community life have been disrupted. And the past fifty plus days of lockdown seem almost like a lifetime. Why is this happening? What does it mean? It is not fair! What is my future? Will I get this virus? Will my friends get it? My mother, my father, my grandparents, will they get this and survive? What shall I do this summer? Can I go home? Get a job? Is my chosen path of education and employment still realistic?
It is a very uncertain time. Unless we have lived through extreme conflicts or poverty, it is a new experience for most of us. But pandemics have happened before. It might be helpful to look at our faith or philosophical traditions to uncover how ancestors coped with pandemic illness in their time.
In the tradition of Christianity that I represent, a sixteenth century religious person of note, Martin Luther, was confronted with the deadly bubonic plagues of the 1520’s. He wrote to his followers,
“I shall ask God mercifully to protect us. Then I shall fumigate, help purify the air, administer medicine and take it. I shall avoid places and persons where my presence is not needed in order not to become contaminated and thus perchance inflict and pollute others and so cause their death as a result of my negligence. If God should wish to take me, he will surely find me and I have done what he has expected of me and so I am not responsible for either my own death or the death of others. If my neighbour needs me however I shall not avoid place or person but will go freely as stated above.”
In many ways, what the reformer proposed doing - instead of running away - was similar to the lockdown advice we have been going through. But one emphasis of this 16th century statement is a bit different from the official announcements of today. And that was the willingness, almost the prescription, to be of active help to his neighbours. In this Luther was following the teachings of Jesus, always ready to be a “good neighbour”.
In the midst of our own confusion and fears for the future we can reach out in the present to others and share practical acts of kindness. You and I, in this time of personal uncertainty, can do our part. We can help our neighbour, fellow students, staff, family or friends with practical acts of kindness, all within good and safe practice. Perhaps we can help most of all by listening and discussing together our fears of the uncertainty that affects us all in these times.
If you look at your own religious or philosophical tradition I am sure you will find similar advice. In this time of trial, be a good neighbour.
Pastor John Evenson - Lutheran Chaplain to the University of Birmingham