Covid-19 and Curiosity - A Morning's Observation

7:10a.m., Sunday, March 22, 2020

For many people in the world that follow the western Christian Church Calendar, today is Laetare Sunday (I know that, thanks to my Church History education, not to my non-Lenten upbringing) and, that, dear friends, causes me to change the computer’s font to a happy one because, on this, the fourth Sunday of Lent, 21 days before Easter Sunday, “Laetare” is a singular imperative—A command. YOU do this!

“Celebrate!” “Rejoice!” “Take a break” from forty days of serious, sad-leaning Lenten denials. 

“Come together . . . Rejoice, you who have been in sorrow . . .” So says the liturgical calendar. 

Oh, sure.

We of the world (well, except for kids on Australian and Floridian beaches) won’t be doing “come together” today. We practice social distancing, are filled with a measured amount of apprehension, and frustrated by the feel of spring air yet a bit bothered by fear. 

Today, wherever they are, bishops and priests wear rose-colored vestments, and if they chant, they are required to chant Joy. Fresh flowers adorn rooms of liturgical worship. Lighten up. Breathe. Do a little jig in Jesus’ name.  It’s a Lenten command.

I don’t think so.

I’m thinking of the hummingbird (Humming Happiness was it?) that lit on my feeder in today’s barely breaking morning light. I watched, and wondered, “Would the bird be affected by light from a small lamp in my study?” I turned the lamp knob.

Bird jumped, fluttered its wings, and rotated to a place of seeing light’s source. It didn’t leave, but it reacted. Tense, it seemed. Alert to its circumstance.

Strange, it may seem to you, but it made me wonder about Jesus, whether he experienced a state of vigilance long before what we call Easter. Was he like us, like the hummingbird, aware of impending danger, and did that awareness travel with him as he walked with friends, walked among enemies, rode in a parade of praise but knew, knew, he wasn’t altogether safe? 

Was he then, like us now, moving through the ordinary but with Stress as a companion?  We of a virus-ruled world know that danger lurks. We may look ordinary, we may move at a normal pace, but we are vigilant, we are ready, like the hummer, to quickly re-stabilize. We are hardly in the mood for rose-colored clothing or a lift from fresh flowers. However, it’s a great command for the day:  

“Laetare!” “Rejoice!”  If even for a moment. Surely, even today, something is worthy of rejoicing.