The pandemic and its consequences have shone a light on how connected we are to everyone else in the world. Amongst the ways COVID-19 has shown this connection is the fact that the virus is primarily transmitted through droplets in the air that we all breathe through the same physiological mechanisms. Any one of us nearly 8 billion people can breathe in the virus, spread it to others, fall ill, and perhaps die. Yet the pandemic has also shown how disconnected we often are from the suffering of others and how that suffering and remedies for it are so unevenly distributed, even among the 300 million in our own affluent country. We who follow the way of Jesus cannot ignore the systemic inequalities that have made the suffering so much worse for poor communities, people of color and impoverished countries. Those inequalities existed before and will continue after the pandemic. However, if our eyes weren’t opened to them before, they certainly are now. Let us use the quiet season of Lent to reflect on how we can each be a ray of God’s light, seeking and promoting remedies to these inequalities.
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