Corona : Angel or Devil?

A Mediation for our times on the Cross and the Corona

The adjective that is used to qualify the Cross is ‘Holy’. The Friday when Jesus died is called ‘Good’. But it was not like that on that first Good Friday. The adjectives that were used for the cross on that first Good Friday were, ‘shameful’, ‘sinful’  and the enemies of Jesus found enough reason to crucify and to kill. Before the ‘Halleluia’ of Easter Sunday, there was the ‘Crucify him’ of Good Friday.

 

The slogans that we are using for Corona these days are, ‘Crucify’, ‘destroy’ and ‘kill’- the very slogans that were used on Good Friday. Will there be an Easter day when we will look back and see in the corona reasons to celebrate and exult?  Are we short-sighted like the Jews and raise the slogan ’Crucify’.   Does corona come as an enemy or a friend? Is it an Angel or a Devil?

 

I remember the week before the lockdown was announced in India there were Hindus and Muslims with swords in their hands killing each other in one of the many communal conflicts in Delhi.

 

The month before Corona struck the American continent, it was measuring distance and the capacity of its weapons to strike North Korea and vice versa. Strong and tall walls were being erected to keep its neighbours out. Leaders of great nations were not convinced that there is global warming and climate change.

 

The pride of humanity has been humbled. Precisely the nations that prided most seem to have been worst struck by Corona. Their guns cannot find the target. Their walls are not high enough to prevent a tiny virus. Their supersonic jets have become the means of travel for the virus and that too free of charge in the comfort of the palm of their hands and very secure in the depth of their lungs. Corona has ‘ brought down the proud from their seats’.   

 

Corona has come with a message, especially for those who pride in the height of their walls, the speed of their jets and the hope they place in their weapons to save them. Corona has a message for those who kill because of differences in colour, caste or religion.  Corona has no colour or caste or country. It has no religion or status or rank. It has a strong message for both those who build walls and temples. No walls or oceans can keep Corona out. No temple or religion can save you. No sword or noise can keep corona out.

 

God sent ‘fiery serpents’  to stop the grumbling, murmuring and clamouring for ‘more’ and ‘better’.  May be Corona is the fiery serpents among us today to stop our clamouring for war and for ‘more’. Leaders who plead to save the earth are being silenced. In the name of development, progress, and ‘more’, we pollute the air we breathe and the water we drink and bring about our own destruction. 

 

 We accuse Corona of killing over a million. What is that compared to the hundred million humankind has killed in the last century alone? Who is more dangerous, harmful and ‘mad’? Corona or humankind?   Corona does not come to kill and to destroy. It comes to give us a message. It comes to lessen the killing, to tell us to put away weapons of war, not to build walls and temples but to unite. Like the tweak on the ear, a teacher gives the pupil to make them learn,  the Tsunami, the earthquakes, the pestilence, the corona are tweaks to humanity that it might learn.

 

So rather than chant ‘Crucify Corona’ let us learn a lesson. Fighting the enemy will only strengthen it. Whatever we resist will persist. The sooner we learn our lesson the faster corona will withdraw.

 

Let us look up to the ‘fiery serpent’ to live.  Corona may be coming with a message for life, salvation, unity and peace for the world. Corona may turn out to be an Angel to be listened to rather than a devil to be crucified.