CORONA VIRUS CHALLENGE. AT ONE LEVEL IT IS HUMANITY VERSUS A VIRUS-DRIVEN PANDEMIC. BUT AT A DEEPER LEVEL, WE ARE FACED WITH A CHALLENGE BETWEEN US AND OURSELVES. THERE IS INDEED THE TEST IN TERMS OF DEVELOPING AND DISTRIBUTING A VACCINE. BUT THE DEEPER AND GREATER TEST IS TO DO WITH HOW WE AS HUMANITY DEAL WITH THE PANDEMIC AND FIND OUR WAY OUT OF THE PANDEMIC AS HUMAN BEINGS, AS SPIRITUAL ENTITIES. LIKE IT OR NOT, WE ARE BEING TESTED.

We live in a world that sees itself afflicted by countless problems. They are problems that are social, political, economic, and of course personal. What, however, we need to bear in mind is that most of our problems have a deeply set origin in matters that are only superficially social, political, or economic. Most of our problems, and this certainly is easier to identify with personal issues, are deeply spiritual. Most of our problems are moral and ethical problems and like it or not, moral and ethical issues are always grounded in matters spiritual. We must never forget that we as human beings are sacred, and that the planet we receive our nourishment from is also sacred. We must never forget that the environment we live in, so often enjoy, and are so dependent upon, is also sacred. We must never forget that we as individuals are infinitely precious, and at the same time are intimately bound up with each other, with our environment and our planet, and of course with the Cosmos entire. We forget that, and we flounder.

The latest data for Covid-19 in the United Kingdom makes for grim reading. 55,892 daily were reported yesterday, with 23,813 people in hospital because of Covid-19. Deaths yesterday reached the worrying figure of 964. The United States have now seen 20 million cases, and over 340 thousand deaths. Worldwide we have seen 83.5 million cases and not far short of 2 million deaths.

We are being tested. We will undoubtedly be able to restore our world to something like its former condition, though at a huge cost in lives. But we must ask ourselves if that is what we want or should want. If we live in a crooked house, that leaks and shakes, and then it is finally blown down in a great storm, do we seek to build the house as it was – leaks, shakes, inconveniences, and all – or do we seek to build a better house? This is the question we now face? And we need to bear in mind that if we re-establish everything to how it was, we will in fact not be able to re-establish everything to how it was. We must accept here and now that the world we create after the pandemic will carry our own consciousness of how we might have made things better. We will never be the same. We change things, or we bear for the rest of our lives the corrosive knowledge deep in our souls of having let slip a great social, political, economic and indeed spiritual opportunity.

Image courtesy of Macau Photo Agency showing two young women walking along a street wearing face masks.