A Timely Response to a Crisis: CTE Presidents, England, Page 23

to the members of the parish. We have to rely on smart phones and other social media to communicate. While this is not the ideal or the habitual way of communication, they are the media available and the best use of them is to be made. Clergy also have to rely on these rather than the traditional pastoral calls.

(c) Grieving in the Company of God

As persons sharing the Christian faith, prayer is an important medium of communication with God. As we read through the Psalms we notice how intimate the Psalmists are with God. They have the freedom to share with God their frustrations and disappointments. The Psalmists often come out openly with their anger towards God for not rescuing them from miseries. We frequently notice that the Psalms, which include such, open expression of rage towards God end with praise and thanksgiving to God. Genuine sharing of emotions liberates us from the power of those emotions and helps us see things from a different perspective. Similarly we who have gone through unpleasant experiences, ranging from moderate to the most intense, do good to ourselves by sharing our painful and tormenting emotions with God in prayer. That is the royal road to grieving which liberates us from tormenting emotions.

We grieve with God when we take the crisis experience in full to God. It involves taking our thoughts, emotions and behaviour associated with the loss in their raw unedited state to God. We are sometimes tempted to make them presentable, hiding what is glaringly open to God. We do much better when we take our raw, unedited experiences to God as an offering. There is healing when raw grief is unmasked and offered before God. As we make an offering of our pain before the throne of God, he would wipe our tears, heal our wounds and heal our souls. Our selfoffering needs to be comprehensive. We are entitled to offer the pain from the losses and all associated thoughts, emotions and behaviour. Grief offered is grief healed and transformed to become a resource in coping.

(d) Grieving Death

The grief of those who have lost their near and dear ones due to Covid-19 deserves special mention. When we lose our dear ones with sufficient warnings about their possible departure, the grief experience is moderate. Grief is moderate because we get opportunities to care for the departing ones during their last days or hours on earth. Grief is also facilitated by the many who participate in the funeral service and visit us personally. In the case of deaths due to Covid-19, these normal processes are blocked. From the moment our dear ones are tested positive, they are isolated from us. We are unable to do any service to them in their dying hours and are not even allowed to be beside the bed when they breathe their last. The normal funeral procedures are also blocked. These seriously disrupt the grieving process. It is the responsibility of the community to facilitate grief using the telephone and other media. There are limits to such help and there is surely a loss here which no one can make up. These losses will need to be shared in solitude with God who is always accessible.

(e) Grieving the Economic Losses

Corona has also brought economic disaster to a huge population across the globe. People have been made jobless and homeless. The torturous homeward journey of people pushed out on to the streets reminded us of the traumatic experiences after the partition of British India. It was thoughtlessness, which led the government to the declaration of lock-down without making adequate provisions for the poor to survive in their habitat. These are vital losses and there are intense emotions associated with such losses. The sense of being abandoned will haunt the displaced population. The emotions need to be processed in helping people cope with the pandemic. When people suffer huge material losses, the community often ignores the emotional impact of the loss and focus on the material loss. Focus on the material loss is surely vital. However, processing the emotions associated with the material loss is equally important. The processing the emotions associated with displacement is vital to carry on with life. It is particularly important that the victims do not attribute the reasons for their predicament on inappropriate persons or objects. In the Indian culture it is not uncommon for people to attribute bad experiences in life to wrong stars, ill luck, as predestined or as punishment from God. Attributing the bitter experiences of life on to such inappropriate objects reduces the ability of people to cope with such experiences.

While the loss of livelihood is indeed traumatic and the importance of grieving is vital preparatory work, coping with the crisis requires genuine support and help from the government, faith communities, social agencies and voluntary agencies. As a church we have a special responsibility to be with the victims of such displacement. They deserve to be supported emotionally, spiritually and materially by all our resources. Our financial support and emotional and social support are all equally important. The plight of those who have lost their livelihood needs to be defined as a problem of the community and not merely a problem of the affected individuals. The Christian community in particular has to express its solidarity with those who have suffered vital losses. Through our social, economic, emotional and spiritual support we enhance their ability to grieve and to cope.

3 The Transforming Power of God

While Corona imposes serious limitations on us humans, it has not taken away everything from us. How to make life worth living within our limitations is amply demonstrated by our Lord through his life on earth. God lived on earth in human form without heavenly privileges