A path to a better future

There must be a word that describes a situation that is worse than a crisis. That is what the world is facing today. Now more than ever we need to turn to a person who can console us, give us direction and give us the motivation we desperately need in these times.

During these times I have always turned to the inspirational words of Pope Francis. He seems to know exactly what to say to guide us.

In this time of the pandemic and COVID-19, Pope Francis in collaboration with his biographer, Austen Ivereigh, has written a book especially for people looking for hope. His simple words are all in a book “Let Us Dream: The Path to a Better Future” (2020, Simon and Schuster).

It is a slim 149-page book. However, there are so many thoughts, advice and papal observations which make it impossible to review in just one column. I will take excerpts that have made deep and lasting impressions on my mind and my spirit. I am sure that other persons will have different sets of excerpts that have impressed them.

The purpose of Pope Francis in his book is to see how this crisis can change our lives. He talks about coping with the global COVID-19 pandemic and our personal crisis.

In terms of the global pandemic, he discusses the different root causes that produced it. He points to a global economy obsessed with profits that disregarded people and the environment that is harmed. He talks of politicians who instill fear in people to increase their power without regard for the people’s real welfare.

At the end, the pope offers an actionable blueprint for building a better world. For this vision of a better planet, the pope believes that the poor and our planet should be at the center. I urge everyone to read the book to appreciate and understand this vision. I can only, in this column, offer a few observations which Pope Francis made.

From the beginning Pope Francis said that this is a time of reckoning. Our ways of thinking, priorities and lifestyles will be challenged. He says: “The question is whether you are going to come through this crisis and if so, how. The basic rule of a crisis is that you don’t come out the same. If you get through, you come out better or worse, but never the same.” This should be a source of meditation for all those who like to say that they just want life to go back to pre-pandemic times and they can live ‘normal lives’ again.

It is in times like these that people are discovered for who they really are. There are three types of people. There are the health workers and community pantry organizers who choose to accompany the people in their pain. Then there are the opposite types – the usurers and those who focus on the ways they can make more money during this pandemic.

Then there is the third type. These are the people who are completely indifferent and think only of their comforts. They stay in their country homes or in their houses but ensure that all the luxuries are there. They may donate some money to charity but their main concern is how to lessen the “inconveniences” of the pandemic – the home quarantine, the closure of restaurants, parlors and so on.

Pope Francis has some real observations on how this is affecting the lives of the less privileged. He talks about the futility of imposing social distancing among the poor. He writes:

“The crisis has made visible the throwaway culture. The COVID health measures have exposed…how many of our brothers and sisters do not have housing where social distancing is possible nor clean water to wash. Think of so many families who live on top of each other in our cities.” While he gave examples in different countries in the world, in the Philippines we can see it in the areas where the urban poor live.

Then he talks of refugees in a way that also applies to those we call squatters in our cities. He said: “Think of the way they are denied the most elemental rights: to hygiene, to food, to a dignified life.” This is how squatter areas and refugee camps turned dreams of a better life into torture chambers.

This COVID-19 crisis has led Pope Francis to ask questions: “How does a family in a shantytown observe social distancing to avoid contamination? How do they obey the health regulations without clean water?”

Pope Francis also talks about personal COVIDs and how we should learn lessons from them. He talked of the three major COVIDs he had to go through in his life.

One personal COVID was in November 1957 when he was hospitalized. They operated on him to take out part of his lungs.

Pope Francis learned the lesson of avoiding cheap consolations when visiting the sick. A nun, Sister Maria, visited and simply held his hand, gave him a kiss and said that he was imitating Jesus.

Pope Francis said: “After that experience, I made the decision when visiting the sick to speak as little as possible. I just hold their hands.”

There are many more lessons in this book which ends with a poem entitled “Hope” by Alexis Valdés.

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