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Lighting a Candle
One candle can light many candles
I remember attending Mass with my mother when I was a child. There would be stacks of votive candles on either side of the altar, and after Mass, my mom would often given me a quarter to put into the devotions box so that I could “light a candle” for someone who we knew that was suffering. Such simple acts of faith — the lighting of a candle and a short prayer at the altar, provided a way to help a child to pause and think others.
Today, it seems, that thinking of others is a rarity. These past few years of the pandemic have really shown the selfishness of our society. I keep this little candle of hope alive inside of me, that people will somehow think beyond themselves, but the reaction of the majority of people to the lifting the mask mandates on public transportation has almost extinguished that light. As Dr. Anthony Fauci said awhile ago, “I don’t know how to explain to you that you should care about other people.”
Where is the compassion for the immunocompromised person, who may have felt a small measure of safety on public transportation. While we all have to learn to live with the pandemic and get back out into the world, these people now have the added risk of being surrounded by unmasked people, seated closely together, in poorly ventilated vehicles.
