Here is a day that celebrates the power of hope – the belief that even the most difficult of hours eventually gives way to healing and restoration.
Right now, all the time zones in the world are stuck in the same unforgiving hour. Some are faring better; some are expecting things to get worse. But the Covid-19 crisis has permeated civilisation like few other events in history, upheaving every single aspect of human existence while crushing dreams, projects, investments and, tragically, lives along its way.
If there ever was a time in which we needed to remember the transformative strength of hope, this is it. But what is it that we’re hoping for?
One phrase that virtually every officeholder and influential voice has repeated in the last weeks is that we are all in this together. Just as so, it is critical that we all come out of it together. That is our hope.
The outbreak threatens the vulnerable the most, and not only in terms of health. Those who find themselves in the most difficult social and economic clusters are several times more exposed to the risks of the coronavirus aftermath and, while many political leaders have acknowledged the danger, impassioned promises to leave no one behind are sadly not enough to achieve that.
It takes courageous decisions and determination to make sure that everyone moves forward together. The magnitude of loss is not equally distributed among all strata of society and, unless they are championed, families who have less will suffer considerably more from this emergency. People facing greater challenges in society have the same right to start afresh as everyone else, so opportunities to relaunch cannot just come in one size.
The resurrection celebrated at Easter does not envisage a re-awakening to life, but to a better life. Likewise, our collective hope is not simply a return to the we reality we knew, but to an improved one: fairer, more equal, more inclusive.
How we rise from this catastrophe will shape the course of the next decade. Let us, then, step out of this darkest hour as one.
