Contemplative Message by William L Bulson
I am not at all uncritical of what health professionals and epidemiologists and health policy leaders have said and done at various times during this pandemic. These people have sometimes claimed too much or been flat wrong. This is true, for example, when it comes to the social and psychological costs of lockdowns and distancing, especially for school-aged children. And to give my visitor some credit, there have been plenty of voices of record during this pandemic that have stoked fear and panic, instead of instilling caution borne of real wisdom. To cut through the political pandering and fear mongering we have been subject to the past two years is to be faithful to Holy Wisdom, too.
But when I pray for healing of a church member who is going into hospital and I anoint that person, asking God’s own Holy Spirit to heal, I trust that the instrument God the Spirit will likely use will be the skill and knowledge of the medical workers themselves, as well as the whole scientific complex that is behind them. That treatment and care are possible and available is a glorious miracle—a showing or manifestation in material reality of the good God that the visitor to my home and I both profess faith in. And to give thought to precautions during the spread of a contagious disease, as well as look to each other for mutual care in such matters, is not to retreat into fear. It is to walk in gratitude for and faith in the Providence of God’s own Holy Wisdom.
No opposition of faith and science. No place for fear OR folly. Because it is right to give God thanks and praise, including when we get our shots.
