SARS-CoV-2: All Is Empty



SARS-CoV-2 has entered the world since 2019. Unexpectedly, the super-powerful novel coronavirus has set new rules to the world according to its own rules.

Experts believe the world only changes when it is no longer viewed and analyzed from the eyes of the centre but rather the periphery. Since Covid-19 arrives on the stage, the profound thought is no longer an abstract idea but a tangible reality. The virus has forced the human beings to face their vulnerability and, above all, to erase the false image that they are “rich” and invincible. Indeed, the virus has steadily pushed the human race to the periphery. Through the encounter with SARS-CoV-2, the human beings, regardless their noble status and wealth, have put on themselves the clothes of the outcast, the voiceless and the untouchable. Stated differently, people are now touching the inner core of their beings: the emptiness of the humankind! Simply put, how poor we are!

All of a sudden, the human race discovers how powerless and vulnerable they are. A spiritual leader states a very vivid statement to describe this mental stage of humanity since Covid-19, “[The virus] exposes our vulnerability and uncovers those false and superfluous certainties around which we have constructed our daily schedules, our projects, our habits and priorities.”[1] Indeed, the invisible SARS-CoV-2 has defeated the visible human race city by city, state by state, nation by nation. Many cities and countries in the world have fallen into the hands of Covid-19 armies. Subsequently, many countries and cities are under lockdown, or enhanced community quarantine, or shelter-in-place, or stay-at-home; the Philippines and Tagaytay, Australia and Central Australia, Vietnam and Saigon, the USA and California, to name a few. Wherever the coronavirus is, the freeway or the public place quickly turns to an empty stage of the theatre at a very late evening. Covid-19 pandemic has indeed caused the crowded St. Peter’s Square of the holy city, New York City that never sleeps, the pearl of the Far East - Saigon teemed with millions of motorcycles, and the capital Manila overcrowded daily with jeepneys to become empty like ghost towns. Who can do such a “miracle?” On the stage now, all presidents including Donald Trump, prime ministers including Boris Johnson, queens including Queen Elizabeth II and dictators including Kim Jong-un lose their voices. The only one who has voice and currently on the throne is SARS-CoV-2.

Only until the moment people face the novel Coronavirus, does the human race taste again its real value: all is empty. Covid-19 pandemic does a favour to the human race, for SARS-CoV-2 has awakened humanity.

The invisible novel coronavirus race, SARS-CoV-2, has defeated the visible human race. Covid-19 pierces the hearts of the human beings; their pride, their ego and their greed all take turn to collapse. Covid-19 strips off the false image of the human beings that they are the super race on the earth. Above all, SARS-CoV-2 race has set the human race back to its original place. Simply put, the human beings are only one of the many creatures on the earth.

What has the humankind learnt from Covid-19 pandemic? Such a frank question has surely triggered many meditations among every single individual of the human race.

Michael Nguyen SVD 




[1] Pope Francis, Why Are You Afraid? Have You No Faith? (Rome, March 27, 2020)

Comments

Popular Posts