Isolation Has Exposed Our Weaknesses

They shall be scattered to search for food, if they are not satisfied they grumble.
But I will sing of thy power, proclaiming thy mercy each morning, for thou hast become my helper, my refuge in the day of my affliction. Ps 58(59)

Pascha has passed over us. What now? When we had barely learned how to live quarantined away from church, we were faced with missing the most memorable services of the Church year: Holy Week and Pascha. Our desire to turn on a live-streamed service under those circumstances is understandable.

Now it is time to throw off everything that hinders and to fulfill the call of the quarantine. This current situation has called to question how we see church. It has challenged our personal spirituality. It has exposed an unhealthy dependence we have had on our churches.

In the words of the psalmist above, are we scattered away from our churches, left to fend for our daily bread in whatever way we can find it, grumbling that the church doors are closed? Or, amidst our affliction of isolation, have we turned to our refuge, the Holy Spirit who is everywhere present and fillest all things? We have precious little time remaining in this blessed affliction to fulfill our true calling which has been there from the beginning.

And by beginning, I mean beginning...as in, the creation of man. Man was made a priest. The essential function of any priest is the offering of sacrifice. We have been handed an unusually difficult situation: we are separated from church, that very place we have been taught is the center of our spiritual life. Our call as a kingdom of priests is to offer that sacrificial situation back up to God for him to use in us in whatever way he wills, for us to turn our whole life into "a reasonable sacrifice".

And what is truly the center of our life if not the Kingdom of God within us, that communion with the Holy Spirit himself in our hearts? Serving at the altar of our hearts is far outside the comfort zone of most of us. We barely know where to start.

This isolation from church has exposed how much we were accidentally relying on others to sing the hymns, on others to pray all those petitions, even on something so simple as the parish to set up a schedule for when we have church. Doing that all on our own seems like too much to ask, but it is only too much because we are out of practice.

The awkward distance we have felt when watching a live-streamed service, the lack of fulfillment we have experienced, that feeling of "that just is not church" all have exposed the fact that the altar of our hearts has been unknowingly inactive. We did not mean for it to be, but it is.

So, before we lose this opportunity to have to do it all ourselves, let's take up the call. Bright Week is unique in this regard. We must make sure we are entering into the Paschal celebration, reading the Paschal Hours for our morning and evening prayers all week this week. Where we would normally be turning to the Jesus Prayer, maybe this week is a good time to just hum "Christ is risen from the dead..." whenever you catch that Paschal mood.

Christ is risen! (And he dwells in your heart.)


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