Healing from 2020 through Solidarity
By Leah Eppen
Take a moment to imagine you are standing on the Baltic Sea port of Gdynia in Poland. There is a damp breeze hitting your face and the air tastes salty from the nearness of the sea. There is the hum of a huge crowd around you as you stand with your fellow seamen and dock workers and you shuffle your feet waiting for the speech to begin. Despite the tiredness in your bones, you feel excitement and anticipation. Suddenly, those same feelings echo around you like a wave, as a man in white steps forward on a tall platform at the base of the wharf.
There he is: Pope John Paul II, the Polish pope. He begins his speech. You feel warmth flood your chest as you look upon a man who is your kin, chosen by God to speak these words to you. The wind no longer bothers you and the salty air tastes like home. Thunderous applause roars in your ears and you hear your voice lifted up with the crowd, chanting, “Solidarity! Solidarity!”
“What does solidarity mean? It is a way of living, respecting differences among people. It means unity in numbers. This is solidarity. This is pluralism. This concerns the whole nation. This concerns living in respect,” John Paul II says.
The conviction in the Pope’s voice makes your heart lurch and you look to the people standing around you, seeing your tears mirrored in their eyes. You are filled with pride to be Polish, pride to be Catholic, pride to be a member of the Solidarity movement. Anti-communist activist efforts had been disjointed and fruitless for so long. And after over 30 years of struggle, the Pope’s message echoes loudly over the crowd: we have purpose. We are unified under a common goal––we will surrender what we can’t change to the Lord and move as a community to change what we can.
Pope John Paul II helped spark the Solidarity movement among the Polish people in 1980 to peacefully conquer the communist reign of the Soviet Union which had governed Poland since the close of the Second World War. This movement was organized as an independent trade union and, at the time of this speech in June of 1987, the movement was outlawed. It is well-known that the Pope heralded the Solidarity movement as a human rights and freedom model.
CALLED TO COMMUNITY
When was the last time you felt authentically connected to the Catholic faith and her community?
For me, it was a friend’s wedding this past summer. Six months ago. The guest list was weighed on a scale against COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, mini hand sanitizers were included in the wedding favours, the reception was hosted in a garage at an acreage, and tables were organized by family unit, placed six feet apart. Despite all this, the mass was beautiful, the first dance was tear-jerking, the joy was palpable, and Jesus was present. Everyone invited participated wholeheartedly in the celebration, surrendering what couldn’t be changed because of restrictions and working together to make it magical and memorable.
From the moment God created Adam, every human being then and now is called to community and to relationships that build upon one another until we are all linked in his Divine Love. Community is at the forefront of the story of salvation history in Genesis 2:18: “The Lord God said: It is not good for the man to be alone.” We are meant for relationship––with God and with others.
We are created by Love, for Love. Communities can be chosen, ordained, willed, and curated; family units, religious communities, prayer groups, book clubs, parish congregations, and sports teams are just a few examples. In any culture, the desire for connection, common purpose, and understanding leads to the formation of communities of all different shapes and sizes. Ultimately, our whole lives are intended for an eternal life of communion (or community) with God and the saints.
An important cornerstone of the Catholic faith is the connection and relationship built between its community members. The subtle depth of community life within the Church can be observed particularly in the mass. For example, the Rite of Peace richly connects us to the Body of Christ. In his book, A Biblical Walk Through of the Mass, Dr. Edward Sri talks about the effect of saying to one another, “Peace be with you.” Just before the sign of peace, we pray the Our Father, claiming the Father as ours. Not mine or yours, but ours. Then, in Holy Communion, we enter into a state of deep spiritual unity with our Catholic community. In between these two moments of claiming oneness and fellowship is the special moment when we utter “Peace be with you.” What we’re really saying is, “May there be peace between you and me.” These words bind us together in deep connection with God the Father and Christ in the Eucharist.
A FRACTURED COMMUNITY
In their article, The Psychology of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Group-Level Perspective, authors Cheri L. Marmarosh, Donelson R. Forsyth, Bernhardt Strauss, and Gary M. Burlingame explores the impact of COVID-19 on groups of people. Because it is a disease transferred between people, they refer to COVID-19 as a “communicable disease” and the subsequent discussion illustrates the group-level suffering that has been a consequence of the pandemic:
The pandemic attacked not just individuals but also their relationships and the groups that sustain those relationships, including their families, work groups, and friendship circles. To cope, social isolation was mandated, but that mandate separated people from the groups that sustain them. As sheltering in place wore on, the isolation strained the resources of people’s remaining alliances, including their families and closest friendships. The illness was also, in many cases, a fatal one and so permanently changed the nature and structure of many people’s groups and relationships.
From a somewhat backward viewpoint, a pandemic showcases the importance of human connection. The reason a virus spreads so quickly is that we are made to connect with each other. We weren’t designed to be creatures of isolation, we were designed to be friends, sons, daughters, parents, spouses, and colleagues! As stated by the authors of this article, group connection sustains us.
Having not been able to participate in group activities or gatherings for six months, I hunger for the community that has sustained me so well in the past. Even in my introverted nature, the longevity of mandated solitude quickly wears on me and solidifies what I know about myself: I don’t just want community; I need community.
Because we’ve been mandated to isolate from one another, a door was opened through which widespread disconnection had the opportunity to sneak into our communities. Put simply, the pandemic has caused widespread disconnection and Pope Francis states that there is “increasing inequality and marginalization” as a result. Healing from such a fracturing crisis as a community requires a twofold approach: using authentic connection to alleviate our isolation and solidarity to understand and work through this dramatic experience together.
AUTHENTIC CONNECTION
It is so natural for us to connect with the people in our lives that being purposeful about connection isn’t something we often practice. But authentic connection has the power to heal the bonds that have been bruised or broken by the byproducts of quarantine, namely: isolation, disconnection, and grief.
In her book The Gifts of Imperfection, Brené Brown explains connection as “...the energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard, and valued; when they can give and receive without judgment; and when they derive sustenance and strength from the relationship.”
Connection is authentic when there is an exchange of vulnerability and openness that allows members of the interaction to feel seen and heard. Vulnerability and openness build trust, which is indispensable to feeling connected. In Mark 7:32-37, Jesus heals a man who is deaf and has a speech impediment, through touch and by speaking one word: “‘Ephphatha!’ (that is, ‘Be opened!’).” To our voices either silent or raised in judgment, to our hearts often encased in walls, to our eyes looking for the negative, to our hands closed in fists, to our ears muffled by the noise of selfishness, Jesus commands us: “Ephphatha!”
One of the prominent findings from The Psychology of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Group-Level Perspective is the influential role of strong leadership in facilitating successful group dynamics, especially online––a place that, for many of us, has become the primary space for connection during this pandemic. The authors of this article seem to believe group cohesion is just as possible online as it is offline. Just as Pope Saint John Paul II helped inspire the Polish people, so too do we need strong leaders to help us define what solidarity looks like online, healing the distance and disconnect so many people are experiencing. It starts with your leadership and openness to empathy, vulnerability, and listening––championing your growth and the growth of others!
SOLIDARITY
Called “group cohesion” by researchers, the concept of solidarity championed by both Pope Saint John Paul II and the Church is extraordinarily important to our times. Solidarity is one of seven pillars of social teaching in the Catholic Church and, very simply, it means shifting from independence to interdependence, where community connection is paramount. Or put another way, it requires us to change our thinking from “me” to “we”. The Church’s view encompasses spirituality in addition to the emotional sustainability and well-being discussed by Marmarosh, Forsyth, Strauss, and Burlingame. These authors go on to say that “[...] group cohesion is one of the factors that helps groups survive during times of distress.”
A pandemic is certainly distressing. These four authors outline how the pandemic is affecting the mental health of people in our communities and the results and predictions are astounding. Frontline health care workers in some countries have noticeably been affected by traumatic stress and there has been increasing aggravation of disorders like obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), anxiety disorders, major depressive disorder (MDD), and substance abuse disorders (SUDs).
Even though we’ve been apart for most of the past year, we’ve shared the experience of being apart. We’ve shared the experience of pandemic-related loneliness, stress, grief, and exasperation––some more than others.
But solidarity is more than just a shared experience––it is a type of authentic connection that drives communities to affect global change. Pope Saint John Paul II defines solidarity as “unity in numbers” and he reminds us that it means living in respect for individual and group differences. The Solidarity movement in Poland showcases a community that is intentional, unified with purpose, and trusts in God’s active participation in our lives––all of which enabled them to carry out great things.
A synopsis of Poland’s Solidarity Movement (1980-1989) by Marciej Bartkwoski illustrates Poland’s journey to freedom from an unyielding communist reign that began in 1946. For 34 years, anti-communist activism engaged in various resistance efforts continually resulting in imprisonment, killings of activists, and disconnected resistance group efforts.
“For decades, Poles referred to their government as ‘they’ without defining what ‘us’ meant,” Bartkowski writes. Pope John Paul II’s vision for Poland inspired a sense of belonging, community, and purpose for the Polish people wanting to be free from communism: “...[as] Adam Michnik, one of Solidarity’s leaders, observed, Poles could finally visualize ‘us’,” Bartkowski concludes. This eventually led to the creation of the Solidarność (Solidarity) movement in August of 1980, and in August of 1989, the election of Tadeusz Mazowiecki, the first noncommunist prime minister.
“Solidarity was not merely an opposition movement; it was, to paraphrase Vaclav Havel, a collective experience of living within the truth. Solidarity was an extraordinary mobilization of citizens from all walks of life united in protest against living in a communist lie,” writes Bartkowski. Although this movement is called “Solidarity,” solidarity itself is a way of living we can adopt while facing a pandemic and its ramifications on our communities.
HEALING TOGETHER
The pandemic has wounded a collective; it’s a fair assessment to say that it’ll take a collective effort to bring healing into our communities. This doesn’t negate the individual experience and the need for individual healing; in this case, individual healing and community healing share a somewhat symbiotic relationship. But the richness that comes from connecting as a group––sharing an experience and striving to achieve a common goal––will be invaluable.
In September of 2020, Pope Francis spoke about the necessity of solidarity in the days and years to come: “Solidarity is the road to take towards a post-pandemic world, towards the healing of our interpersonal and social sicknesses. There is no other way. Either we go ahead along the road of solidarity, or things will worsen.”
Whether we meet in unity at mass, during an online rosary recitation, while social distancing in a public space, or in the comments section of an Instagram post, let’s try to move forward and heal as a community––bound together in solidarity.
Peace be with you.
