Emergencies and Charity: A
reflection by Cardinal Tagle
What place does charity have in a time marked by the
Coronavirus pandemic? Cardinal Luis Antonio Gokim Tagle, Prefect of the
Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, and President of Caritas Internationalis,
reflects with Vatican News on this question, urging us to conquer the virus and
fear with the "contagious pandemic of love".
+ Luis Antonio G. Cardinal Tagle
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
We are faced with an emergency due to the coronavirus 19. An
emergency, from the Latin word “emergere”, refers to an unforeseen
occurrence that rises before us and requires attention. Emergencies are not new
to us. Every year we experience earthquakes, typhoons, floods, drought and
diseases. But they are often confined to a limited place and people. The current
covid19 emergency is called pandemic, from the two Greek words: “pan”,
meaning “all” and “demos”, meaning “people or population”. A pandemia affects
all or nearly all people. We can say that the covid19 is a general or universal
emergency. It affects nearly all of us. It invites a response from all of us.
During emergencies, we instinctively think first of
ourselves, our families and the people close to us. We will do anything within
our means to protect them. While this reaction is basically good, we should be
careful so that we do not end up thinking only of ourselves.
We should avoid fear from making us blind to the needs of other people, those
needs that are the same as ours. We should prevent anxiety from killing genuine
concern for neighbors. In an emergency, the true heart of a person also
emerges. From an emergency that affects all people (pandemia), we hope
to see a pandemic emergence of caring, compassion and love. An emergency crisis
that erupts unexpectedly can be addressed only by an equal “eruption” of hope.
A pandemic spread of a virus must produce a pandemic “contagion” of charity.
History will judge our generation by the power of self-less love that this
common emergency will have generated and spread or will have failed to do so.
We thank the heroic people whose love and courage have already been a source of
healing and hope these past weeks.
Experts say that we should wash our hands to avoid being
contaminated by the virus and to avoid spreading it. At the trial of Jesus,
Pontius Pilate “called for water and washed his hands in front of the crowd,
declaring as he did, `I am innocent of the blood of this just man. The
responsibility is yours´” (Matthew 27:24). We should wash our hands, but not
the way Pilate did. We cannot wash our hands of our responsibility towards the
poor, the elderly, the unemployed, the refugees, the homeless, the health
providers, indeed all people, creation and future generations. We pray through
the power of the Holy Spirit, genuine love for all may emerge from all human
hearts as we face a common emergency.
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