Today is Maundy Thursday in the western Christian tradition. Tonight churches following a sacramental tradition, would usually begin the Paschal Triduum, the three day period of liturgical observances that leave Lent behind and usher in the Easter season. But tonight will be different. Tonight there will be no people in the pews. This year The COVID-19 pandemic has the world in its grips, isolating us from our families, our friends, and our faith communities.
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| image: Alexandra Koch - pixabay.com |
Though there will be some of the usual decorations around and about, there will be no festive family meal at my house this weekend. No ham with scalloped potatoes and spring veg to be shared among our children, their spouses, and a granddaughter. The house will not resonate with laughter, loud stories or silly jokes.
We are a family of blended faiths and traditions. Our Easter is shared with those celebrating Passover (Hebrew greeting: Chag Pesach Sameach!) and those who will celebrate the Pascal Feast a week from now in accordance with the Julian calendar (Serbian greeting: Hristos vaskrse, and the response: Vaistinu vaskrse). We are all struggling together but apart to celebrate these feasts of faith and family, courage and love.
Easter and Passover celebrate not only renewal and rebirth, but also a certain scrappiness and resilience, a certain indomitability of spirit. Hope and life triumphed over death and fear! We can rejoice in the fact that we are, at the very least, still alive. We can gather however we are able. And we can insist that the perfect not be the enemy of the festive.
Easter will be a hard story this year, so will Passover. There is nothing new in that. These festivals have always been hard stories just as they have been stories with beautiful endings.
What begins with darkness and fear ends with light and ...
I love this word. Be it whispered or shouted or sung, it is a word that for me is overflowing with gratitude, hope, humility, triumph, and joy. I cannot say it without a smile crossing my lips, a warmth rising in my heart, a tickling of joy sparkling through my soul. It is just the antidote to the siege of COVID-19.
I am blessed by the richness that family traditions bring to my table any and every day of the year.
I have plenty of food and clean water.
I have warmth and shelter.
I am blessed by love.
I am safe at home.
Alleluia!
©2020 April Hoeller
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