Easter in the Time of Coronavirus

 

In a March 27, 2020 statement, the Vatican said that all Holy Week celebrations will be celebrated at the Altar of the Chair in St. Peter's Basilica "without the participation of the people."

 

     There is probably anguish in separation here, not sharing penance in mournful assembly—as if together we could bear the burden more suitably than alone;

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     There is a sense of loss, too, like in forgoing floral carpets and peasant-borne biers in street processions—as if assuaging the guilt of humankind is more properly a collective than a solitary act;

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     There is apprehension, as well, in celebrating a resurrection without congregational joy—a worrisome feeling that exultation needs face-to-face reassurance.

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      Yet…the passion at Gethsemane was friendless and unshared;

The crosses at Golgotha witnessed social distance on that cruel day when death came isolating and alone;

And the resurrection—to the dismay of faithful and apostates all—had no witnesses at the point. 

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     “Without the participation of the people” has new meaning now—like cholera in 1832 and the Black Death five centuries before—a fearful meaning: I am discarded.

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     But also like the rise of the self separate from the social in the late Dark Ages: an exploration of the "I" from inside.

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     What remains here, then, in my confinement? Maybe privileged access to myself. And from the East, watchfulness of the human heart.

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     And prayer, of course, in private urgency. And in urgent privacy.