Covid-19 is like the alarm that wakes us in the morning. We fight against its call, trying to turn over again to sleep. But work or other duty calls us, and we grudgingly get up.
Last year when we began closures of every venue of social gathering, we kept asking if this were real. It was like those first pictures of the airplanes crashing into the towers on September 11, 2001. Surely not. It had never happened before, and we had no precedent for judging it. However, for 9/ll, we had videos and personal testimony and physical damage.
With Covid-19, we see people dying, but in much quieter ways. Certainly, the pathogen is not visible to ordinary people without the proper equipment. It allows more room for hearsay and myths and outright lies.
It seems part of human folly to advance falsehood when disaster strikes, rather than accepting truth. Even around the disasters of September 11, 2001, falsehoods appeared. How much more should we expect myths to entice us in dealing with a Covid-19 disaster.
Mask-wearing, social distancing, closure of public events—they are painful to us. We’d like to think they’re unnecessary, even when Covid-19 increases as they are ignored.
God willing, the vaccines, may help us blunt this plague. However, the world will go on, and other challenges (epidemics, terrorism, famines) will tempt us at other times to ignore truths.
Jesus told his disciples that they would know the truth and the truth would set them free. Yet, even with Jesus in their midst, some refused to see the truths he offered. Truth requires change, discipline, and sometimes even pain.
No wonder we are tempted to believe myths that require no change on our part.