As today we enter the second week of national lock-down, there are things about it I’m beginning to like. Our local newsagent is now delivering milk, which is a plus; and although the BBC keeps apologising for the audio quality of its radio and tv programmes as presenters and guests broadcast from home, I think this adds to the reality of what people are saying. When assistant political editor Norman Smith was last week televised from his study, with family photos on the shelf behind him, it somehow added a human dimension.
Not that anything can really be set against the awfulness of the Covid-19 emergency, except perhaps the huge outpouring of goodwill and support for our doctors, nurses and associated staff in the NHS, and the way neighbourhoods – like Fairwarp – have organised.
The isolated are being helped, food is getting to those not able to get out, and we are showing good practical care for one another. It’s all good. But this week and next will see increasing numbers of Covid-19 patients admitted to hospitals and their intensive care units. In times of uncertainty and even fear like this, faith can be a strength. For as the Old Testament book of Lamentations says: ‘The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end.’
Fr John