It seems this Lent has lasted longer than most. It seems it might last longer. With the world around us shut down for another month or more, how can we celebrate Easter alone? How can we celebrate the washing of the feet, the veneration of the cross, the Easter fire, when the lights in our churches are turned off and the doors are locked?
Well, we could go back to the beginning.
We could remember that 2,000+ years ago there were no churches like there are today. There was no schedule, there were no livestreams, there were not daily phone calls and meetings reminding us of the distance between us.
There was only fear. Not of a virus, but of persecution for those who had followed the Lord.
And yet they gathered as families and cared for one another.They gathered as small communities and fed one another.
They washed each other’s feet by caring for widows and orphans.
They venerated the cross by remembering the sacrifice they had witnessed – even from afar.
They remembered their experience of the person of Jesus Christ and loved one another as a response.
Yes, Lent will seem long this year. Hope will seem distant. Light will seem weeks away.
But perhaps that is the gift of this pandemic: time to stay close with those who love us most, quarantined with those who love us no matter what. It offers us time to be still – as if we were in the dessert.
We must remember our experience of Jesus and his challenge to us to love one another, forgive one another, serve one another.
It started with an experience of Jesus.
That encounter led to discipleship.
May this experience – this desert experience – do the same.