Message from Tim

A new normal?

So, after 9 months of lockdown because of Covid-19, will we be back to normal by Christmas? Boris hopes for a significant return to normality by then, but for some people, his claim resonates disturbingly with the misplaced confidence of 1914 that the war with Germany would all be over by Christmas, and scientists have distanced themselves from his words, warning that we will have to prepare ourselves to live with the virus for decades to come. We have ordered 100 million doses of the Oxford vaccine, which successfully triggers an immune response to the virus, but we do not know yet whether it will offer protection or merely reduce the symptoms of the virus, and even if the vaccine is successful, scientists warn that it will not eliminate the virus from the population.

I am reminded of the sobering thoughts of Dr Rieux, the hero of Camus’ novel The Plague, who, as he watches the celebrations of those who have survived, understands that there can be no definitive victory against the disease: ‘He knew that this happy crowd was unaware of something that one reads in books, which is that the plague bacillus never dies or disappears for good, that it can lie dormant for years and years in furniture and linen chests, that it bides its time in bedrooms, cellars, trunks, and bookshelves, and that perhaps the day would come when, for the bane and enlightening of men, it would rouse up its rats again and send them forth to die in a happy city.’

I hope I am not depressing you too much… I just wonder whether our hope that scientists can find a solution to this problem that will enable life to get back to normal again may be misplaced. It feels as though it is grounded in the expectation that we will always be making progress so that we live longer and longer and life gets better and better as we do so. But that is not how society usually works; it may just have been the peculiar experience of the Baby Boomers, many of whom have found that, until now, the passing decades have, by and large, been kind to them. But what if coronavirus means all that is about to change? In 2018 people aged 65 were told they could expect to live, on average, to the age of 85 for men and 87 for women, but Covid-19 is going to play havoc with those predictions. Are we all going to have to adjust our expectations about the future?

Of course, one of the social functions of religion over the centuries has been to help people accept the reality of their own mortality and prepare them for dying. The hope of eternal life, if embraced, can help people relinquish their hold on this life because they believe that this life is not all there is. It may be no coincidence that the decades-long slump in church attendance negatively reflects the exponential increase in living standards in western society. When life is good and death is over the horizon, what need is there of God? But what if we start to find that science doesn’t have all the answers? What if we find that we need to come to terms again with the fragility of human life? What if we have to learn anew the lesson that previous generations understood so clearly, that ‘in the midst of life we are in death’?
Big, big questions…. Maybe we should remember the wise words of the author of Psalm 49, who combines an awareness of universal mortality with a confidence in God as our redeemer:

I will turn my ear to a proverb; with the harp I will expound my riddle: Why should I fear when evil days come, when wicked deceivers surround me — those who trust in their wealth and boast of their great riches? No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him — the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough — that he should live on forever and not see decay. For all can see that wise men die; the foolish and the senseless alike perish and leave their wealth to others. Their tombs will remain their houses for ever, their dwellings for endless generations, though they had named lands after themselves. But man, despite his riches, does not endure; he is like the beasts that perish. This is the fate of those who trust in themselves, and of their followers, who approve their sayings. Like sheep they are destined for the grave, and death will feed on them. The upright will rule over them in the morning; their forms will decay in the grave, far from their princely mansions. But God will redeem my life from the grave; he will surely take me to himself.