Válaszkeresés járvány idején a felmerülő erkölcsi kérdésekre

Abstract

Összefoglaló. Most már második éve általános tapasztalat – és nemcsak egy kis területen, hanem az egész világon – a COVID–19 halálos járvány terjedése (az elnevezés pontosan: SARS-CoV-2), amelyet már nem lehetett egyszerű megfázásnak vagy gyorsan elmúló betegségnek tekinteni, hanem egy olyan súlyos állapotnak, mely fenyegeti minden ember életét, függetlenül attól, hogy ki hol él. Az egészségügyi kutatók az ellenanyag kifejlesztéséért küzdöttek, mely megállíthatja a vírus terjedését. A gyógyítás kérdései mellett azonban filozófiai és vallási kérdések is felmerültek, melyekre pszichológusok és hittudósok is keresik a választ. Az ember teremtettségéből és szabad akaratából kiindulva a jelen tanulmány a Bibliában közölt kinyilatkoztatás és a keresztény tanítás alapján vállalkozik nemcsak lehetséges válaszokat adni, hanem a járvány komolyságával számolva a jelenség hitbeli és teológiai magyarázatát is megfogalmazni. Summary. The Covid-19 epidemic, which began in late 2019 and early 2020, has reached everyone: the family, the workplace, and public life. The phenomenon also requires a comprehensive solution. The unfortunate experience has taught everyone that there is no age limit for the virus because it affects everyone equally. It has become clear that it is not individual solutions that are needed, but only community path finding, that no one lives alone in isolation. Throughout its two-thousand-year history, Christianity has accompanied man in both its successes and failures. God’s revelation-based teaching is unchanged and to this day He provides His resulting answers to everyone by placing the whole man before God. This Christian-minded anthropology means that man lives in a personal relationship that assigns him to God alone. In terms of faith, it thus approaches the crisis, the disease, the drama of being, in a different way, which sees the reality of life and death in a greater context. The spread of the current epidemic has been interpreted by many as a divine punishment. But God, the Creator, who is good, cannot be the source of good and evil at the same time, he cannot be the starting point of evil. It is precisely because of these characteristics that spiritual and moral behavior is valued in the epidemiological situation. Christianity does not see God-consciously directing punitive action in unpleasant events for people and humanity, as God is first and foremost a Father. In the Old Testament, there is no connection between a particular disease or other plague and the personal sins of those who suffer it. Far from the New Testament, the conclusion is that it links the plagues, diseases, and epidemics we experience to the sins committed by individual people. The turn of the New Testament, then, is also significant in the presentation of God. It is no longer the image of the fearsome and terrible God that emerges, but the teaching of Jesus, who says of His Father, “God is love.” The God of the New Testament is a God of co-suffering and compassion who thinks not of punishment but of forgiveness. Troubles are not necessarily attributable to the sins of individuals, but actually to the sins of all mankind. Therefore, it is necessary for everyone to feel somehow responsible for the other when they see that their sins continue. However, the viral situation has also shown unparalleled human behaviors and values, especially on the part of healthcare professionals. Perhaps involuntarily, among those who acted for others, man’s better self manifested itself, so they were able to make sacrifices as well. Of them, too, Jesus said, just before his suffering, that “no one loves more than he who gives his life for his friends.” It is love that overcomes fear, that can be the cure for a virus.