Some mutterings 

Have you noticed that there are a lot of numbers lately? Number of people who have been infected, number of people in ICU, number of people who have died, number of people who are on a ventilator, number of jabs, number of people  who were in the community while infectious, number of mystery cases. We are pretty well saturated, drenched and drowning in numbers.

Now all these numbers are good, dandy and helpful. They give us an idea of how things are going, or not going and I am sure that our fearless leaders use them every day to make those tricky, complex decisions which no one really likes.

In the Church we keep numbers thinking that the more bottoms we have on the pews the better we are. But Big is not always better.

We ambush ourselves when we obsess with numbers. We forget that there are real people on the other side of those digits. Those numbers are real people, shedding physical wet tears and who’s blood pressure is truly rising as they go without work / dollars. They are real people, just like you and me who are simply fraught because they cannot sit at the bedside of their loved one. They are palpable, touchable people who selflessly work vigorously and many hours to look after us, protect us and are patient with us as we are patients to them.

Each one of those numbers is a brother, a sister, a mother, a father, a child, an uncle, a lover, a friend, a colleague. They are important and cherished by a multiplicity of people. They are of immeasurable value to the one who went to the cross and suffered in His own way for each and everyone of them. Everyone of those numbers is a child of God and unforgettable to Him.