Cardinal Tagle urges COVID frontliners to take time to rest and eat

With the increasing number or coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases in the country, Filipino Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle has urged frontliners to also take the time to rest and eat.

He reminded frontliners that they are human beings with needs and limitations and not machines or tools.

"To our frontliners, you should also rest," Tagle said during an online recollection for frontliners on Tuesday.

"We are not machines. We are not tools. We are human beings with needs and with limitations," he added.

"Even machines are given time to rest to preserve it, what more the people?" said Tagle.

Sadly, the cardinal said, some people tend to forget this aspect.

Tagle said while the capacity to work is part of human nature, it must serve God, humanity, and not the other way around.

"To rest a little affirms that we are human beings. As human beings, we are called to serve our true God, and our neighbors. The call to rest is also a reminder that work is not our God," he said.

Tagle, the prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for the Evangelization of People, said even patients should not be treated merely as cases or numbers but rather as human beings.

"They are not cases, they are not numbers. They are human beings with names, with stories, with families, with futures that sometimes have been interrupted," he said.

The cardinal expressed hope that Christ's invitation for people to rest, eat, and go to a quiet place, as well as the pandemic will remind people about humanity.

"This is not just a case of a pandemic. This is a human sign involving human beings, whether patients or workers. It's about humanity," Tagle said.

The Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines National Secretariat for Social Action or Caritas Philippines, in partnership with Dilaab Foundation, Inc., organized the special online recollection as a way of saying thank you to the selfless service to the Filipino people of frontliners.