With three words, Dr. Alex Garza took me back to a Catholic hymn of my youth.
“I am scared,†Garza said during the dramatic news conference last week at which he and other medical leaders in St. Louis and across Missouri asked Gov. Mike Parson to issue a mask mandate and a statewide “safer-at-home†order.
Garza’s fear wasn’t inward-facing but outward. He’s not so much afraid for himself, I suspect, or he and other health care workers wouldn’t be doing the courageous work on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic. Garza is afraid for his colleagues, for the people he sees in his nearly-at-capacity hospital, for those who will be infected with COVID-19 soon and might not have a hospital bed. He’s scared for a state and a nation that haven’t yet used the bonds of our common humanity to come together to battle this killer virus.
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BE NOT AFRAID.
Like Garza, I grew up Catholic. One of the most inspirational songs I remember singing at church, on retreat or at funerals, was written by Father Robert J. Dufford, a Jesuit priest.
The song has been on my mind a lot lately. It started during former Vice President Joe Biden’s speech a few days after Election Day when he cleared the Electoral College bar to become the nation’s president-elect. Biden spoke of one of his favorite Catholic hymns: The hymn, Biden said, “captures the faith that sustains me and which I believe sustains America.â€
Music can do that. Whether it’s from a faith tradition — Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Jewish, whatever — or whether it is the secular music that takes us back to a different time or finds a way to celebrate our common purpose, like Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.,†or Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.â€
My wife, who grew up in a different Christian denomination, asked if I knew of the hymn mentioned by Biden. Indeed, I did. In high school, I was in two choirs at the church I grew up in, St. Thomas More. In the adult choir, where I sang with my mom, “On Eagle’s Wings†was a staple; in the younger, guitar-based folk music group, we were more likely to sing “Be Not Afraid.â€
I GO BEFORE YOU ALWAYS.
Fear, the subject of the song, has been a constant topic since the pandemic swept this nation in early 2020. There are those who suggest we should not be afraid to live, to dine in large groups, to open up businesses and schools, to practice our freedom to not wear masks. In Missouri, those are the folks who are in charge, politically speaking, or who are driving the conversation by shouting the loudest.
Last week, a group of Missouri Republican senators, for instance, met together in a caucus at Big Cedar Lodge near Branson to discuss their plan for a special session, called by Parson to pass a bill that would shield businesses and other groups, perhaps even governmental entities, from lawsuits related to those who have suffered or died from COVID-19. Now that special session has been put on hold because the senators met maskless indoors, and some lawmakers and their staff members are infected by the virus. ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ weren’t afraid. Now, apparently, they are. Singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette might call that .
COME, FOLLOW ME.
Lately, I’ve struggled with my faith, in part because so many in politics have weaponized religion to use it as a wedge to divide us, rather than bringing us together. Some churches have defied coronavirus restrictions. Some Christians use faith as a political identifier. Former U.S. Sen. John C. Danforth warned us about this 14 years ago in his book, Rather than using faith as a political wedge, it should be a uniting force, helping people of all backgrounds understand their common humanity, Danforth wrote.
The nation didn’t listen. These days we shout at each other, over everything, and the pandemic has magnified our divide, with some members of our various tribes demonizing teachers, and even health care workers, for having the audacity to express their fears as the pandemic has taken more than 240,000 American souls to their final resting places.
AND I WILL GIVE YOU REST.
There will come a time when Garza and his fellow health care heroes receive a well-deserved respite, but for now, they want us to be afraid. “The wolf is at the door,†wrote the Missouri Hospital Association last week in its letter to Parson begging for a statewide mask mandate.
Fear, our medical experts, many of them men and women of faith, are telling us, isn’t weakness, but the common bond that will strengthen our resolve to defeat the virus knocking at our door.