Personal Reflections

Obviously everyone is having much time on their hand right now. And it’s good that people stay indoors to avoid any contact with any possible ‘invisible’ infected people. Reflecting on the current situation, I thought of the comparison of the Coronavirus Pandemic with a war. I see this as a Third World War, without the bombings and the destruction of buildings. But like bombs falling from the skies and from the Luftwaffes, the victims have been and will be numerous and unpredictable. However as our parents and grandparents had to fight during the war, all we are asked to do is sit on a couch, watch TV, call friends and wait, hope and pray. All this togetherness will bring about an explosion in the baby boom come November and December. Maternity wards will be as crowded as the ITUs are now. Priests will be very busy baptizing newborn babies, and there will be a frantic rush for diapers and baby formulas. And then, as we have welcomed the Millenials over the past few years, by 2033 will welcome our Quaran-teens. An interesting concept that evolved over the past few days is that children have realized that they have parents, with whom they can also talk face to face, not just through their cell-phones. Then their parents suggested that they brush off the board games like Scrabble, Chess, Monopoly and Snakes and Ladders and start playing them, without looking at a screen or one of the hand-held gadgets that have somehow became glued to our hands. And then once this is over, every country should organize a ticker-tape-parade, this way people can throw from their seventh-floor skyscrapers they’ve been building in Malta the 238 rolls of toilet-paper with which they have over-stocked their bathrooms.

I hope no one got offended, but I had to share a lighter side of this sad and scary situation, and a little sense of humor never hurt anyone. I am personally spending over 5 hours giving out communion to the residents of a Retirement Home which I’ve been serving for the last 4 years. Then I celebrate Mass by myself in my chapel, which the residents can watch on their Chapel Channel through a closed-circuit TV transmission, They are all locked in their individual rooms and see me as an angel visiting them. They all want to talk and hear the latest news. Most of them are oblivious of social media and may not even know what is going on. In fact today, after saying a prayer after each of the over 70 communions I give out, praying specifically that Coronavirus will not cause any more damage, one of the older ladies asked me so innocently “Who is Corona Father....is she a new carer causing trouble already?” First I smiled, then I cried.