We are all essential
A particular word recently entered our everyday vocabulary. We knew the word before, to be sure, but never did we use it the way we are now. Essential. The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed this word onto our lips in a new way. We now use essential to describe people, or at least, their work. It emerged as a seemingly necessary term to distinguish between workers whose vocations provide an obvious vital service to other members of society from those whose work was deemed not necessarily “essential” to the basic needs of our civilization, at least, in the midst of a pandemic.
I suspect we’ll continue to hear the word repeated in this fashion for quite some time to come. That said, Christians certainly recognize the label’s inadequacies. The church, after all, made the official non-essential list, even though it’s the church that continues to give the world the Word of God, which, according to Jesus, is the only thing needful (Luke 10:38-42).
We should, however, stop for a moment and declare without equivocation that all people are essential. That’s what Christianity teaches and it’s a message the millions upon millions of Americans who lost their jobs due to the coronavirus need to know. No one’s vocation should be considered non-essential, regardless of whether it seems less important than another’s with respect to outward appearances and according to human judgment.
When talking about Christians in their relation to other members of the church, St. Paul wrote, “For the body does not consist of one member but of many. … If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.” (1 Cor. 12:14, 17-20).
As we stop to remember that all people are essential to our life together, what the apostle wrote to the church can be applied to our society for the benefit of all. It is easy to see the need for certain vocations in the light of this pandemic. Similarly, it’s easy to let slip from sight the essential value of other vocations that don’t have a direct connection to COVID-19. Just because we cannot see the immediate worth of one’s work does not mean the person and his vocation are not essential to the function of our society.
A nurse is essential in caring for patients. Who cares for the nurse? Who pays her a wage and from where do they get their finances? Who provides food for her to eat, clothes for her to wear so that she may continue caring for the sick? How complex is that distribution chain? Who takes away her garbage? Who plays the music she unwinds to after a long day of being faced with illness and death? Who writes the novels she reads that remind her of the joys of life often blotted out by the emergency room images that haunt her mind? And, who will sell her the next one in service to her mental health?
The apostle Paul continues, “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you,’… On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable… If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.” (1 Cor. 12:21-22, 26). We are all essential.
We should, however, stop for a moment and declare without equivocation that all people are essential. That’s what Christianity teaches and it’s a message the millions upon millions of Americans who lost their jobs due to the coronavirus need to know. No one’s vocation should be considered non-essential . ...