Hajja Salesjana July-September 2020

H AJJA S ALESJANA 4 20/20 Vision Reset, readjust, reflect, recapitulate, reawaken are the words which come rushing to my mind as I look back at these past surreal months while our global community has been besieged by the sudden Covid-19 pandemic. It seems to me that our fast-paced life, which really was nothing more than a rat race, has come to a grinding and crashing halt with everything smashing down to a deafening, roaring silence. Lockdown has made us stop in our pretentious tracks and take stock of our way of life, our existence, our values and our priorities. While we have been locked inside our homes, we have had ample time to reset our lives to a more relationship friendly rhythm, were we finally have managed to make precious time to just be with one another, play with one another, talk and listen genuinely to one another. We have been obliged to readjust our livesmaking us aware that, what we termed normalcy before Coronavirus toppled it all over, was no normal at all – it was simply not working! Just a glance around us gives us ample proof to this despite our affluent living – stress related diseases, sadness, emptiness, broken relationships and existential void. We have been cornered on the spot and made to reflect on who and on what truly matters in our life at the end of the day. We are now further appreciating the freedom of movement we took so for granted. We are yearning, more than ever before, to be able to hug those whom we love and simply to just be with them. Something we previously had time to do but alas, never actually sat down to do it due to our topsy-turvy priorities. We are being taught to recapitulate our existence so as to learn once again how to approach life, seeing everything as a God- given gift, freely and daily offered to us out of His immense love for each and every one of us, His children. Even just a simple cup of tea or coffee with a friend or kindred soul, a meal with family and friends is now something we value more than ever before, due to the social distancing we are obliged to follow for obvious health reasons. Indeed, Covid-19 has reawakened in us all, the joys of a simple lifestyle, free from the asphyxiating and shackling schedules we were immersed in up to a few weeks ago. Schedules that were robbing us of the joys of living, while we abused of the luscious beauty and bounty of Earth, our temporal homeland, we were supposedly meant to look after, in the name of so called progress, or rather masked regress, I dare say! We have come to realise that we are all equal and that we all need God in our lives. Without Him, we have no bearing, no compass, no guidance. A life without Him, is just not worth living! Hence before rushing back to some form of normal, let us wisely pick what normal we wish to return to and live in, now that we have time to reset, readjust, reflect, recapitulate and reawaken within us all the real and true value of life, God’s gift to us. Indeed 2020 has brought us to a sharper 20/20 vision! Take care and keep well! God bless us all. Fr. Sandro Camilleri sdb Photo:NicholasBarbarosonwww.unsplash.com