Essential workers can be national heroes

Dear Editor,

“Essential worker” is a term that has been used widely, and we have heard and become accustomed to since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic.

We have heard that only essential workers can move about during curfews and lockdowns. Some of the people named as essential workers are doctors and nurses and other healthcare workers, law enforcement officers, sanitation workers, pharmacists, communication technicians and journalists.

The list has grown over time, and may continue to change.

These individuals have been considered essential because of the jobs and functions they perform and their necessity to keep our lives as normal and functional as possible in the strained conditions under which we must now live.

When hurricane conditions threaten, the list may get smaller, and rightly so, because everyone really ought to be indoors and locked down. There have also been questions raised in the religious community about pastors and the conduct of public worship in churches being essential.

I imagine we can build arguments for some other people who were not at the time considered essential to be included in the list of essential workers. For example, since schools are open again, professors, teachers, preschool, daycare and custodial workers can be included as essential workers.

So, who is a hero? A hero is someone we admire for their selflessness, sacrifices, courage, noble qualities, outstanding contributions and achievements.

As we continue to struggle with flattening the infection curve in this COVID-19 pandemic, we must pray earnestly and passionately for the doctors, nurses and healthcare workers; the police and defense force, customs and immigration officers; professors, teachers, pre-school, daycare workers and custodial staff, who place themselves and their families in danger by the mere fact that they are on the frontlines, and are in danger of becoming infected and even dying as some have done already.

Let us pause for a moment of silence and remember them. Rest eternal grant unto them, O Lord, and let light perpetual shine upon them. Amen.

These men and women get up every day, leave their families and loved ones and walk into the danger zone and do battle face-to-face with the enemy, COVID-19.

They stare death in the face every day to make The Bahamas a safe place for us to live, work and play; to make safer communities for all, citizens, residents and visitors.

“Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” – John 15:13

I pray that in next year’s National Honors List, some of these essential workers are honored as the heroes that they have become, or are becoming, placing their lives on the line daily, fighting to make and keep our country healthy and safe. They make it possible for us to experience the abundant life God wants us to have, that Jesus died to guarantee us.

The wisdom writer in the text today tells us that it is a good and noble exercise to “sing the praises of famous men and our ancestors in their generations” (vs. 1). Today, we sing the praises of those set aside to be remembered as national heroes. I am suggesting for consideration that there are people, essential workers who as I write are performing exceptional deeds working to flatten the COVID-19 infection curve, who by their actions ought to be considered heroes in due course. May God bless and keep safe our essential workers who may become our next national heroes.

Jesus told his disciples in the parable of the lost sheep (Matt.18:12-14; Luke 15: 3-7), that the master left the 99 and went after the one that was lost. The significance is that everyone counts, and has value and worth in the kingdom of God; every single soul is essential.

The whole community and nation is weakened by the absence of just one soul. The body needs every finger, toe, tooth, ear, eye, foot and leg.

Everyone who has been fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 119:14), in the image and likeness of God (Gen. 1:27), is an essential worker in God’s eyes. So, who is an essential worker? You, too, are an essential worker in the eyes of God; so, get up and get involved.

Christ and The Bahamas are counting on you!

— Fr. Stephen E. R. Davies

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