Let me share you how to live and react in this COVID-19 situation based on the fact that I read once.
It wasn't COVID-19 but the bubonic plague, a much more deadly disease. And years passed before anyone knew what caused it. That was August 1527, the plague emerged to Wittenberg, the town where the famous professor and a reformer of sixteenth century Martin Luther was lived. And where he had nailed his 95 theses to the castle church.
The University of Wittenberg was closed. Everyone who could get out of the town was getting out. Luther was also ordered to move to an unaffected town even by his biggest supporter, the Elector of Saxony, John the Steadfast. Luther refused to leave. Instead, he chose to take risks to care for patients and dying people along with his pregnant wife Katharina and turned his house into a temporary hospital.
He’s being besieged, wanted him to make a statement, and Luther sent out an open letter to Rev. Dr. John Hess. The title is often translated as "Is it possible for someone to escape a deadly plague" or " whether one may flee from a deadly plague?"
His letter was found in Luther’s Works, Volume 43 p. 132, as “Whether one may flee from a Deadly Plague,” Luther writes:
“๐ ๐ด๐ฉ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ ๐ข๐ด๐ฌ ๐๐ฐ๐ฅ ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ค๐ช๐ง๐ถ๐ญ๐ญ๐บ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฆ๐ค๐ต ๐ถ๐ด. ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ ๐ด๐ฉ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ ๐ง๐ถ๐ฎ๐ช๐จ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ, ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ฑ ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ณ๐ช๐ง๐บ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ช๐ณ, ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฏ๐ช๐ด๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฅ๐ช๐ค๐ช๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ข๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ต. ๐ ๐ด๐ฉ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ ๐ข๐ท๐ฐ๐ช๐ฅ ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ข๐ค๐ฆ๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ด ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐บ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ ๐ช๐ด ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ต๐ข๐ฎ๐ช๐ฏ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ถ๐ด ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ค๐ฉ๐ข๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ง๐ญ๐ช๐ค๐ต ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ญ๐ญ๐ถ๐ต๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ด๐ฐ ๐ค๐ข๐ถ๐ด๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ช๐ณ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ข๐ต๐ฉ ๐ข๐ด ๐ข ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด๐ถ๐ญ๐ต ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ฎ๐บ ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐จ๐ญ๐ช๐จ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ. ๐๐ง ๐๐ฐ๐ฅ ๐ด๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐ธ๐ช๐ด๐ฉ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ต๐ข๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ฆ, ๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ด๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ญ๐บ ๐ง๐ช๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ฅ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ด ๐ฆ๐น๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ค๐ต๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ด๐ฐ ๐ ๐ข๐ฎ ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ด๐ช๐ฃ๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ฆ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ฎ๐บ ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ข๐ต๐ฉ ๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ข๐ต๐ฉ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด. ๐๐ง ๐ฎ๐บ ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฅ๐ด ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ ๐ด๐ฉ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ข๐ท๐ฐ๐ช๐ฅ ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ข๐ค๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ต ๐ธ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐จ๐ฐ ๐ง๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ญ๐บ ๐ข๐ด ๐ด๐ต๐ข๐ต๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ. ๐๐ฆ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ช๐ด ๐ด๐ถ๐ค๐ฉ ๐ข ๐๐ฐ๐ฅ-๐ง๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ง๐ข๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ค๐ข๐ถ๐ด๐ฆ ๐ช๐ต ๐ช๐ด ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ฃ๐ณ๐ข๐ด๐ฉ ๐ฏ๐ฐ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ญ๐ฉ๐ข๐ณ๐ฅ๐บ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฅ๐ฐ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ต๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ต ๐๐ฐ๐ฅ.”
With the increase in COVID-19 cases, it's well to go back to what Luther said. To take reasonable precautionary measures and love neighbors. And to remember that it is more blessed to give than to receive.
Link of Luther’s letter online version is given below:
Image: Martin Luther
