H. MVSU
Dominican of the Anunciata
Deep in my heart, there are many mixed feelings, many shared lessons (I don’t know if this is what this situation teaches us all), there has been reflection, prayer, indignation, admiration…; as in each of our communities.
We prayed and celebrated the Resurrection of the Lord and the Easter season in confinement. During all these days, we were able to live concretely what the Lord said: “I will always be with you”. In a way, these words have become reality through a large number of institutions and individuals who have dedicated time and resources to help in the many needs that have arisen.
All of us, Dominican Sisters of the Anunciata (D.A.), have been very worried about the elderly sisters we have here and a Thank You! Because so far, the virus has not affected the four houses we have in Spain. Of course, there are not only elderly sisters in our houses… and ultimately, we were worried for all the sisters.
The virus forced the members of the General Council and Provincial Councils to stay in areas affected by the pandemic – not in the places that had been planned – so we began to use other means such as online Council meetings – which by the way was nothing new.
In the community, we experienced suffering for the most fragile members of our society who did not have the houses we saw on television to confine themselves, and who had no devices or musical instruments to make up for it during those long, grey days. And yes, really, we suffered for them. And we became aware of our visible “richness” in this confinement, that is to say the ample spaces that allowed us to move and stretch our “joints” even if, for some of them, it seemed a little small.
As we are in front of the Santa Elena Clinic, we were shocked and saddened to see how its landscape has changed. Instead of the silent patients who came for outpatient consultations, it is the ambulances that line up at all hours of the day to drop off patients or to collect the bodies of the deceased.
But in this same place, we also laughed, applauded, thanked and sang with the medical staff; an appointment that was a daily occurrence. Every day, the “I will resist” strengthened us.
Coronavirus taught us, with all its cruelty, something we already knew. The great powers trembled, defenceless in the face of a microscopic particle. Our capitalist and consumerist system is wrecked, we have tangibly touched the ease with which everything we have acquired with so much effort can disappear.
From this lesson, if anything has been learnt, something new can be born, God willing. Let us offer Him our collaboration.
Our planet Earth will also wonder if, in the end, we have learnt something. Or will it look at us with a little scepticism?