By Most Rev Prakash Mallavarapu,
Archbishop of Visakhapatnam
“Take care and be safe,” are the words we are constantly hearing since the outbreak of the Covid-19 Corona virus pandemic. Rich or poor, young or old, believers or non-believers, all are advised because life is precious. We cannot live life any way we like if we want to be secure and safe, happy and peaceful. But, can we take care of everything about life? No, but there are a lot of things we can take care to be safe and secure. We have to get on with life trying the best way possible to protect our life and others’ life as well!
Self-care seems to be the only and best option!: Saying vaccination is the best solution and at the same time unable to see that the supply matches the demand is a contradiction! It seems self care within the given possibilities is the best alternative than to be overly dependent on the organized measures of the public or private health care systems! There will always be situations and forces that deter us. Our efforts to live our life with confidence and hope are challenged.
The second wave of Covid-19 Corona virus with all the different variants has silenced all of us in this country making tall claims. What a change in a short span of few weeks! This second wave has not only brought back our memories of the total lock down of March 2020 with all its consequences but has also brought with it added fears and anxieties. We in India were so relaxed till the middle of March 2021, feeling as if in India it is all over with Covid-19. But then, we were wrong, our leaders were wrong, and our healthcare related administration was wrong! Warning signals coming from across the world about the danger of the second wave were perhaps taken as news for nations and people elsewhere and not for us India! But, now we see how our vulnerability and false confidence are exposed.
That the number of positive cases is on the decline is good news but bad news is that still we are vulnerable and not fully prepared, as being predicted, If the third wave comes even before healing the scars of the second wave, what would be the situation? We should make planned preparations to face such a situation. Health care system out there is not as good as it should be, and certainly, not fully equipped as yet!
Self-care means taking responsibility for all the spheres and aspects of one’s life: Among the many lessons we are learning from the Covid-19, one is about how to take personal responsibility for health as well as all other related matters! It is not only about having to take care of immunity levels in the body.
Life in its entirety has come for serious review. So many aspects are there: How do we look at human life and the vast nature around us? What do we think of the dynamics of human inter-relatedness? There are things we can take care and things that are beyond our control, how we understand, how or to whom we turn? Do we resort to instant solutions or answers that the market or the Google or media in general give? How do we plan our personal life and that of the family? How to face if there is a threat of death of a parent or a family member, the consequences of losing bread earner in the family? There is, of course, the most crucial and important matter of financial burdens due to heavy medical and hospital bills!
Our life is not a single compartment but a complex reality! As individuals or as families we cannot have or do not have readymade answers or solutions to all such matters.
This Covid-19 second wave is inviting us, or even forcing us we can say, to think about them. Perceptions, attitudes, and making plans to face the reality of life play important role in all the above mentioned life-related matters. Accepting the fact that most of the things are not within the control of our manipulative skills or mechanisms, we have only to learn from the experiences from this year! We should also learn with the help of the enlightened minds, their advice or instructions as professionals in the given fields. All said and done, personal responsibility and a multi-pronged effort has to be there!
Self Care of our Faith life: spiritual, moral and social responsibilities: We were maintaining physical (social) distance and wearing masks for keeping safe: For our safety this physical distance was not only advised but strictly demanded and enforced in public places. In matters, of spiritual and moral, maintaining distance from all those possible forces and powers or influences that expose us to dangers to our spiritual and moral life is necessary, if not, we might end up in paying the heavy price of downfall.
Tomorrow: Accompanying the faithful in this difficult time