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May 03, 2009 - SWINE FLU and FAITH?

by Father Edward L. Beck, C.P.

I don’t know about you, but I’m already sick about hearing about getting sick. Yes, of course I’m talking about Swine Flu, which you can't avoid hearing about no matter where you go. And forgive my skepticism, but I just can’t help feeling that yet again news outlets are feeding our innate fears and paranoia. Yes, I do know that people have died in Mexico, and that some of them were very young. And that the predominantly Catholic country even cancelled Sunday Masses, so you know it must be pretty bad right? But how bad in context still remains to be seen. A bit of perspective: 36,000 Americans die of flu-related causes each year. That’s regular old flu. And while a few vulnerable Americans will die from Swine Flu, the overwhelming majority of cases have been relatively mild. And even though it’s been reported in other countries, pointing to a possible pandemic, no reports have indicated that the severity elsewhere approaches what happened in Mexico. Remember the reports about Bird Flu and SARS? They too were going to be the great pandemic. And while there were some tragedies with those, as there always are with illness, they didn’t warrant the corresponding fear-mongering. And so, at least for now, I’d rather take a faith perspective. I’ve heard that in the Bible it’s attributed to God as saying "DO NOT BE AFRAID" 366 times. That’s once for each day of the year. And once for leap year. So for today, I’m going to take Him at his word.