To watch India’s tragedy is to experience emptiness

RALPH GENENDE: This pandemic is a reminder that we are all interconnected and no country can go it all alone

One of the most poignant lines in one of our most poignant Jewish prayers is: “Do not turn us away, Oh, our King, empty [handed] from your presence“.

To be empty must be one of the most devastating conditions of being human. To be emptied of love, empathy or even anger and hatred is to be devoid of humanity. For a believer, to encounter the absence of God is one of the most painful experiences. Today, we would probably express this sense of emptiness as depression, desperation, burnout or flatness.

Just watching from afar the enormity of the tragedy unfolding in India is to experience emptiness. Listening to and watching the personal accounts of acute distress is unbearable. Emptiness is everywhere, from those empty oxygen cartridges to the void in the hearts of desperate relatives seeking treatment in overburdened hospitals. And there’s the sense that their government has failed them.

India may be far away, but it is close as a vibrant democracy, a neighbour, a friendly country, some of whose citizens have moved here. It is a country which many Australians have visited. It is an enchanting place filled with colour and vibrancy. Once you have made the passage to India, you are forever altered.
India’s pain is our pain, its tragedy is our tragedy, its horror encapsulates the worst fears we all have of Corona virus running unchecked through our lives. It is a reminder that the plague has not ended, that despite our good fortune we remain vulnerable. It is a  reminder that in this pandemic we are all interconnected, and no country can go it all alone. It highlights the errant thinking that the wealthy countries that can afford and have easy access to the vaccine can protect themselves alone. We have a global responsibility; we are all fragile creatures of our Creator. If we don’t work together to defeat this enemy, we will all fall and fail.