Psalm 62: “In you alone is my soul at rest. My help comes from you.”

For people in many parts of the North Western Hemisphere Saturday afternoon football is a colorful, (other nations will have their equivalent in soccer, futbol) exciting and cherished part of human association in autumn. It can serve as an outstanding example of how fighting the virus has eliminated vital occasions for human association, for enjoying each other’s company.

At our university when meeting traditional rivals, we may have between 14 and 16,000 in the stadium. A beautiful, blue sky, October day, surrounded by gorgeous leaves of fall! Fans, mostly alumni, of all ages, come to enjoy the game.

However, not all come to enjoy the game. There are some who come primarily to see old friends. They, in fact do not even see the game, so absorbed are they in reuniting with comrades from college days. Others simply come to walk through the woods and enjoy the splendor of fall. The football game in these cases becomes an occasion for other activities not immediately related to a passion for football but to human interaction.

Much that makes life meaningful has been set aside while we try to outfox the virus. In football a rich social event has been literally demolished by our precautions against the virus. Would we, if we had known in advance what our measures against the virus would do to interpersonal relationships, to our humanity, would we have worked harder to find alternatives?

This is just one social event of many that has been shattered by our strictures. There are also wedding receptions, funerals, concerts and theater, gatherings for many a cultural event, celebratory dinners, meetings simply for the sake of enjoying each other’s company! Will we be able to look back with a critical eye on “what we have done” and wonder if this was the right path?

Psalm 27: “I believe I shall see the Lord’s goodness / in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord; be strong; / be stouthearted, and wait for the Lord!”

Reply to Fr. Don at: DTalafous@csbsju.edu

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