Two Years Of Penitence

And while this year, many religious events associated with Lent are allowed (albeit still with health and sanitation protocols), let’s not forget the fact that the past two years has been one entire season of penitence and suffering.

We had all had to suffer during the two-year-old pandemic — not just due to the sickness, pain and death that this pandemic has caused, but the widespread economic and social upheavals brought by the restrictions on movement and activities due to Covid-19.

All of us had to endure enormous sacrifices — staying at home, forgoing many of the activities that had been part and parcel of the “old normal,” added with the worry that we may catch the disease or even pass it to our loved ones.

Many of us had to endure pain, hardship and suffering not just due to Covid-19 but due to the closure of many businesses and the suspension of many sectors, including education.

Frontliners — doctors, nurses, hospital workers, law enforcers and those in the so-called “essential businesses” — have had to continue serving their kababayans even with the risks attributed to the pandemic.

Medical frontliners faced exhaustion, mental anxiety, and the backlash against them by unreasonable minds who baselessly accused them of deliberately spreading the virus for their own selfish ends.

Yet, after all the suffering and pain, a silver lining may finally be in sight.

Just as Jesus Christ died and rose again, so can we recover from this crisis.

With cases on the decline, we now have that knowledge that we could face — and defeat — whatever unknowns we will face as we continue to battle this global problem.

And that, by the way, should be our guide as we prepare to elect the leaders we want for the next three to six years.

We need leaders who have the brains, the capability and the political will to lead us back into “normal” — even though many of us have forgotten that word even existed.