By Deacon Jerry Jablonowski
Our lives have been affected in so many ways by this coronavirus pandemic. Following public policy towards mitigation of this dreaded illness has turned our lives upside down. We have been struggling to find ways to tolerate stay at home orders. To learn new routines within our social isolation and for many to incorporate the education of their children during the day while schools remain closed. And above all, our stress and anxieties are peaked by the fear of contracting coronavirus as we see each day the numbers of confirmed positive cases and deaths from COVID-19. Our sorrows run especially deep as we experience the reality of death or the struggling for survival of friends or family members as a result of this disease. We see many around us, if not even ourselves, who have lost jobs. Jobs that have sustained them and their families just disappeared literally overnight as the American economy had to shut down in order to curtail the spread of the virus. And furthering these emotions, people of faith are experiencing a great suffering of their spirit through the ongoing inability to worship as a church community. We Catholics are finding it especially painful as we hunger and thirst for the Eucharist, now that our attendance at Mass is limited to live streaming video broadcasts on our televisions and computers.
We see and experience so much suffering on many levels for so many people and we pray prayers of thanksgiving if we have been spared from this illness and the devasting turbulent side effects from it. And through this experience we have come to realize a deep sense of gratitude for those who are continuing the front-line battle against this disease. Those doctors and nurses, all hospital workers, who are putting their lives on the line to save others. And for all those who continue to leave their homes each day, endangering their own health, to keep us fed and sustained with life essential things. Grocery store clerks, delivery drivers, postal workers, truck drivers, food service and supply warehouse workers, all doing their part to help us endure and survive within our new isolated realities.
And, during the course of all of this, we have witnessed a tremendous rise in charitable acts and volunteerism within our communities. Everything from making protective masks, preparing food for hospital and nursing home workers, to fund raising for many people who need help due to the collateral damage being done by COVID-19.
As we so often come to discover during and after a crisis passes, there are silver linings and often beautiful by-products that emerge through the sorrow and pain. This crisis should be no different. There is something that we can all learn and carry with us through and beyond this experience. We of all ages have now come to know better the pain and sorrow, as well as the heartbreak of true isolation. We have experienced the frustration that comes from being stuck in our homes. We have now lived with the anguish of the loneliness of not being in the daily presence of friends and neighbors. Of not being able to be with children or grandchildren and feel their precious hugs and experience that tender touch of another human person.
As we feel these longings and experience these emotions, we can come to fully embrace them as we realize the reality of what so many of our elderly brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, grandparents and neighbors feel each day in their lives. In lives that certainly now are being threatened by this pandemic and in lives that will go on after it is controlled and behind us. We now know firsthand these feelings of loneliness that isolation brings them. Isolation from friends as safe physical mobility diminishes. Loneliness and social distancing as circles of friends get smaller or disappear completely due to death. And the resultant feelings of despair and frustration that begin to take over in our elderly loved ones who were once vibrant and joyful people. Our social distancing and isolation of today is only temporary and will end soon. But for many of the elderly in our communities, it will go on way beyond this pandemic.
Our living sense of compassion can and must be enhanced by the internalization of these feelings that we are experiencing these days. As a people of faith, we can and must emerge from this pandemic more empathetic than ever to the reality of loneliness that so many experience each day throughout their twilight years. What we now feel must serve as the spark needed to light the flame of desire to do more to be present to those among us who suffer the inability to move beyond their homes or their nursing home rooms. To create in us a burning desire to visit the homebound sick, the residents of nursing homes, and those whose physical disabilities cause them to remain virtually prisoners within their homes, isolated in so many ways from the world around them.
We need to find purpose behind this dark cloud that can bring new life to the elderly among us. We need to store away these feelings of today. Lock them in our brain centers of emotion and in our heart chambers of compassion and unleash them through the power of the Holy Spirit once this all ends. To find that precious element of time to spend with those who feel lonely each and every day. We can and must be motivated by our own awareness of the terrible feelings of isolation and loneliness now known firsthand. And let us be moved into action as we recall in sacred Scripture John 10:10 which tells us that “I (Christ) came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.” Let us not allow anyone among us to live short of that abundance while in our midst. Let’s be sure to bring life to all, and bring it to the fullest.
Throughout this crisis the staff of VITALity Catholic Healthcare Services of the Diocese of Camden has remained active in our efforts of Care Coordination for the elderly and disabled, helping them with their healthcare concerns through these stormy times. Doing it via phone calls and drop off of key resources as needed. Our hospital chaplains have remained a presence within our South Jersey hospitals even though limited by strict non-visitation policies of COVID-19 patients. They have prayed on the phone with patients, prayed with and consoled family members who are also unable to see their loved ones during these critical times. Even at the time of death for many. And they have been a source of strength and comfort for doctors and nurses who are feeling the spiritual, emotional, and physical strains of caring for the victims and bearing the heartbreak of death and suffering of so many. We need to continue to pray for all caregivers that God will bless their heroic efforts with His peace and love.
