COVID is a physical pandemic. We are all concerned and anxious about it. But the surprising thing is that we are not mindful of the MORAL PANDEMIC that has been raging in our midst for long. In the long run, the latter is more destructive than the former. Let me highlight only one aspect of this reality and leave the rest to the imaginaion and contemplation of the readers.
The most glaring thing in the wake of the pandemic is the shocking lack of facilities to meet the needs of the infected and the dying. What does that point to? Is it not the decline and near-death of our caring culture?
Caring, as every religious scripture tells us, is the core human responsiblity. To be human is to care. God cares. Creation susists on God’s care. Societies subsist on the caring capacity of its members.
When human beings get alienated from God, they lose their capacity to care.
Man’s capacity to care is really the most reliable gauge of his oneness with God. It is impossible to be godly and uncaring at the same time. Our incapacity, or unwillingess, to care is a measure of our alienation from God and from each other.
Generally speaking, the atrophy of the capacity to care is the proof that we are corrupt. Politicians may be clever and careful enough to escape from the arm of law. But it is not difficult to find out if they are corrupt. Does this politician, that leader, really care for the people? Or is he only posturing insinerely as a provider of people’s welfare -especially professing hypocritical compassion for the poor and the marginalized?If he is, rest assured, he is corrupt.
He may not be caught in the act lifelong. But the truth is undeniable, and it stares us in the face that he is corrupt to the extent that his capacity to care for the people is paralyzed by corruption.
The zenith of corruption is to rob the poor in order to fatten the rich. Should we be proud, or should we hang our heads in shame, that billionaires are multiplying during COVID times, whe the vast majority of Indians are hard put to survive? How does this happen? And what does this tell us?
There is a synergy between the physical corruption as symbolized by the COVID pandemic -the virus invading our physical vitals- and the moral corruptin that is eating into the vitals of our society. Any day, it is easier to eradicate the former.
Jesus came to eradicate moral corruption. The sadness is that the church, which boasts of being his Body, is infested with this infection. Worse still, if you say that this is so, and it should not be so, church zealots will grab you by the throat and eradicate you!
Little wonder Jesus saw Jerusalem, the City of God, and wept bitterly!
