Food for thought

The sermon in a Catholic Mass last Sunday revealed a lesson perhaps many of us remain unaware amid our abnormal/unusual circumstances.

In the Gospel read beforehand, the story was that of Jesus of Nazareth whose influence, at that time, was gaining ground. This worried church leaders and other people threatened by the power they could sense in the simple man that some of them made efforts to either discredit or get him incarcerated.

Some of these men approached him one fine day while he was preaching to a crowd and asked him a leading question: Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar?

If Jesus had answered yes, explained the priest, then he would be betraying the people or his followers; and if he had replied with the negative, then he would be betraying the state. So, Jesus, wise man that he was, first asked the men to show the coin they would use to pay taxes with.

The men handed over a Roman coin bearing the visage of Caesar, to which Jesus then uttered: “Give to Caesar what is due Caesar, and to God what is due God.”

And what does this story have to do with the current discussion going on among people about the easing of quarantine restrictions?

Lately, government had relaxed the age limits so that more people would be able to go out and engage in their usual activities pre-pandemic, but now with strict health protocols, of course.

The COVID-19 Inter-Agency Task Force now allows those aged 15 to 65 to go out, under Resolution 79 released last week. Other than work and buying necessities, people between ages 21 and 60 used to be restricted from engaging in leisure activities outside the home and even worshipping at their local churches.

Have you tried staying indoors for seven months straight, with physical contact discouraged, especially among seniors

(who miss their children and grandchildren terribly)?

Lucky for those with yards or gardens for they can take short walks, but what of those whose living quarters are just as limiting as the pandemic?

It must be hellish and lonely.

While we do not discount the sacrifices everyone must make to ensure that COVID-19 does not spread any further, the reality on the ground may simply be more infectious than

“In other words, let us support government in its efforts to address the effects of the pandemic, but let us not abandon our own souls in the process.

the virus, as people slowly but surely roll into quarantine fatigue.

The IATF directive, then, has been received with welcoming arms, even as government issued another reminder for people to practice self-discipline and for local government units to impose shorter curfew hours for businesses to get that much-needed lease on life — and, of course, for the economy to improve soon.

This is the quandary that one may be pushed to ask someone — say, an uber popular leader whose following is immense, and whose words are often taken as gospel by people who have long depended on such personalities to lead them out of trouble and poverty.

One may be behooved to say that nurturing one’s spiritual needs is a health need. One’s mental well-being, af ter all, also depends much on the strength one gets from one’s faith. It is not only the support of one’s friends, family, even government and the Church that can carry a person through the worst of times — it is, in the end, one’s core source of strength: faith.

So, this is the quandary: why is it so easy for government to ease quarantine restrictions to urge along a brisker economic activity, yet fail to give enough attention to the needs of those suffering from spiritual poverty?

All I’m saying is, if we are to ease quarantine restrictions, we might as well ensure all bases are covered: impose and implement strict health protocols by all means. We need it. But if people want to go to church instead of malls, then maybe 30 percent capacity is a little unfair compared to the 50 percent allowed in transport or restaurants.

In other words, let us support government in its efforts to address the effects of the pandemic, but let us not abandon our own souls in the process. We need food for our flagging spirits just as much as we need food on the table

Just saying. Let’s pray for some balance in this life.

“Have you tried staying indoors for seven months straight, with physical contact discouraged, especially among seniors?