Thomas Breen photo
A near-empty Green amidst the pandemic.
(Opinion) Easter and Passover are gone, at least as we know them. The New York Times has recipes for one for Passover. Easter egg hunts are showing up as puzzles on interactive TV shows. Like some in need of a ventilator, we are desperate for the fresh breath of the religious holidays but are coming up short.
The smart money is on the religious holidays joining Broadway in going dark. Theater may depend on an audience; faith does not. Faith likes an audience but doesn’t require one.
Mission central thinking is much more interesting now than mission consistent thinking. Discovering what is important about the days’ and their rituals takes priority over making sure it looks like we are observing the holidays/holy days. Faith and its trust-making capacities matter. So, do dyed eggs and shank bones but they are hardly fundamental to faith. They are “just” decorations. When we are driven to our cores, as we are right now, we may as well drive ourselves to where we are already going.
A little history helps. During the time of the Black Plague in the Middle Ages, people were required to go to church at 11:00 a.m. every day. That was before they knew phrases like “flatten the curve” or “social distancing” or, for that matter, molecular biology.
The weekend is also gone. No snark intended, but losing sports and kids’ soccer and bars and restaurants is probably harder on people than virtual worship. Yale librarian Judith Ann Schiff explained how the weekend was invented. In 1926, Yale put an end to compulsory chapel attendance for students. The end of compulsory Sunday church services meant that everyone could live it up in the city. Now prayer is so necessary that you don’t even have to make it compulsory.
This renewed attention to the inner will be a boost to dinosaurian religious organizations. “Stop the train, I want to get off,” was my pre-virus mantra. I have moved home to psalms and hymns.
Religious themes matter. We know about Easter and its affirmation of life after death, and Passover and its insistence on liberation for the captives. Do we have to gather to remember these themes? Nope. They exist even if we don’t consider or celebrate them. Or if we have to observe them alone. Or if we can’t find a shank bone or an Easter egg to color. They are not their outer trappings. They are their inner truths. You’ve always wanted to learn how to meditate or how to have an authentic spiritual experience. Now, courtesy of the plague, you can.
Spiritual clarity is neither going nor gone. We may not like what we see but some heavy-duty spiritual crap is firmly on our screen.
The office as we know it is likely gone. Why office when you can zoom? School as we know it is likely gone. Why drive to school when you can plug into it? Aren’t your kids always asking for screen time?
The outer world is going, and the inner world is taking hold. This shift is the best news there could possibly be – since externals had long been beating internals, 12 – 1. Lions 12, Christians 1 is the other way to count.
The individual is going, and the collective is prevailing. Queen Corona knows nothing about class or race, and we won’t have enough time to teach her. We may even find a silver lining in what was previously understood as the higher and aspirational horseshit: We are all one. We are not individuals but members, one another. E pluribus Unum. With liberty and justice for all.
There will be terrible, painful losses in these multiple transitions. Some of us still miss going to the bank. Touch and eyeballs and hugging and passing the peace will all be terrible losses, especially for the already lonely.
I may sound blithe about these losses, but I am not blithe. Instead I am a fan of the still speaking God, the one who keeps us changing and keeps changing on us. And yes, someday the virus will also make its way out the door and a fresh wind will blow in.
The Dolly Mama, aka Donna Schaper, is an ordained Baptist/UCC pastor with 42 years leading congregations. She is currently Senior Minister at Judson memorial Church and lives both in NYC and West Haven. Formerly, in the last century, she was an associate chaplain at Yale. She is intrigued by the Buddhism of the Dalai Lama and the music of Dolly Parton. She is married to a practicing Jew. Her spirituality is blended and blending. Her last published book of 37 is ‘I HEART YOU FRANCIS’: LOVE LETTERS FROM A RELUCTANT ADMIRER. Queen Corona has asked her to say something, and she has agreed. The recipe is one-part detachment, one-part engagement, all unbearably light.