***
Since the outbreak of the Coronavirus, there’s been a flurry of panic buying.
People have flooded grocery stores, clearing shelves left and right. There’s even a rush on toilet paper.
It’s all driven by this underlying fear of the unexpected, of being ill prepared for disaster.
Sadly, whenever hard times strike, there’s not only widespread fear, there are also opportunists looking to make an extra buck.
Two Tennessee men, for example, stockpiled 17,000 bottles of hand sanitizer hoping to price gouge people on Amazon. Thankfully, they were forced to donate them.
Shelf clearing, toilet paper hoarding, and especially price gouging on household essentials sounds ludicrous and unfair.
Because it is.
But all of these behaviors are driven by varying degrees of selfishness, a tendency that can twist any human heart.
***
In the Gospel, for example, a man has been ill for 38 years.
He’s staked his hope for being healed on dipping in the waters at the pool of Siloam. Think of Siloam a bit like the shrine at Our Lady of Lourdes in France.
Christians who are ill for any reason make a pilgrimage there, seeking to bathe themselves in this blessed – and freezing cold – water.
In a similar way, the waters beneath Siloam bubbled up on rare occasions.
People believed the eruption was caused by an angel, thus the first person to bathe in those waters would be healed from his or her infirmities.
This poor man had been waiting for his chance for 38 years. But every time those waters were stirred, a stampede ensued.
“Everybody gets down there before me,” he says to Jesus. Though everyone was in need, no one, it seems, thought of giving this man his chance.
***
“Everybody gets down there before me.”
Can’t we hear this crippled man’s voice echo in the throats of our neighbors – the sick, the elderly, the stay-at-home mom – who hope for their own share of groceries and hygienic supplies, only to find shelves emptied?
Selfishness.
***
This Gospel is a gentle reminder to us all that we’re still in Lent.
Though we’re all in need of things – from hand sanitizer to a hug – we have to fight our selfish tendencies and the spiritual malaise that can set in from being bored at home.
Theres an unknown number of days of this to come.
As we wait for the light at the end of the tunnel, make every effort to be thoughtful, generous, and patient.
Maybe even call up that stay-at-home mom with her hands full or an aging neighbor to see if you can pick up their groceries and leave them at their doorstep.
Though charity is always the best path to take, it’s even more important now.