During this pandemic we realised that despite the good or bad education we have received in life, we went about our activities in a reckless manner, crowding together, eating junk food, touching surfaces without washing our hands, coughing and sneezing without consideration for the person next to us. We learned that the wealth and power of countries in the world is not enough to protect against new pathogens, and that bad interventions by governments can have dire consequences on the population. We learned to miss the tireless hours of face-to-face classes, the hours of work, in short, to miss our routine. We learned to value our loved ones when before we were fed up with so many hugs and kisses, and that in case one of them was admitted to hospital, it was better to say goodbye in time than never to say goodbye at all, since they would be returned to us in ashes. And this is when everything around us discovers its value; the importance of the here and now.

We live in a liquid world in which we go, we come, we climb, we descend, we make, we unmake… And we stop living and enjoying the small and simple things of everyday life.

We have realised that the world is not safe and can change overnight and that we must learn to live with this realism, but without fear. 

We have had to overcome the fear of contagion, of confinement, of death, of not seeing our loved ones, of losing our jobs, … The creature without its Creator vanishes; man without God is nothing and finds no reason to exist.

We understood that we should be united, the health workers, the cleaners, the police, the shopkeepers, the neighbours, the businessmen, to work together against the virus.

We are used, in big cities, to have a lot of people around us, but without establishing human and cordial contact. This pandemic has helped us to come out of our inner world to connect with the people around us.

How many good initiatives in favour of the most needy came from educational institutions, social institutions, ecclesial movements, the business sector or individuals. It is when we relate to and seek to serve others that we discover the best in human beings. 

We live in difficult, unprecedented times of great general uncertainty, we do not know exactly when this will end, but what we do know is that we must inexorably face it with unity, strength and intelligence for the good of all humanity.

It is incredible to hear in the media about the increase in depression and anxiety due to confinement, which is in sharp contrast to work-related stress before the pandemic. Man destabilises himself when he does and when he stops doing, which shows us that we largely lack order and harmony to balance our lives. 

We must make a stop in our lives to assimilate all of the above, so that we take positive advantage of this situation and strive to truly say “humanity, after learning these great lessons, was never the same again… but BETTER”.