This message from one of our priests, Fr. Nicholas, is very important to read, contemplate, and then act upon. Toby tells me he's already seen Atheists going on about churches canceling services and questioning how much we really believe if we do that. The Liturgy and Sacraments are vital. In Orthodoxy, they are not canceled, they are just not available publicly to the masses right now. In some cases, they will be made available to a limited few within current limitations or privately. They are, however, ongoing. We must be good, responsible citizens and balance this with our duties and obligations as Christians. Our Archbishop and priests have been struggling mightily with the proper, moral balance between church and state, if you will. I think they have found it. (One other Russian Orthodox church has offered a similar solution except that that priest is going to allow families to come in one by one after Divine Liturgy to receive the Eucharist as a family and receive confession at that time if needed. This will also comply with the limitations on the number of people gathering at once while offering the Sacraments to all who are properly prepared to receive.)
More than that, we Christians need to have our minds set right about how to respond to the current situation in attitude and action. I had a Catholic friend tell me yesterday that his Catholic friends told him that "Lent was canceled" because masses have been canceled and the other services, such as Stations of the Cross, that make up part of a Catholic Lent. We both agreed that, no, that is not the right attitude. Prayer and belief must be internal and personal, as well as public, or corporate, when we go to services together. "You must develop an interior prayer life," our archpriest, Fr. Seraphim, tells us this constantly. Lent is not canceled. Christianity is not canceled. God is not canceled. Rather, among other things, He is testing us, calling us to do more on our own. This will require a discipline for many - especially myself - that I do not currently consistently have. Perhaps this is one of many spiritual lessons we are to learn in the current environment and one of the good things that can come of it for all of us. Please read on...
Why is prayer essential in a pandemic?
In our increasingly secular society, it has become commonplace to dismiss "thoughts and prayers" as a cop-out, as a failure or unwillingness to pursue concrete and substantial economic, political and social measures. And I will not dismiss the importance of such measures, when taken with due deliberation and research. There is a lot of very good research, for instance, surrounding social distancing and other quarantine strategies being implemented worldwide, and we should all work together to put them into practice.
These measures are not, however, and cannot be, the most important things that we do in the face of a crisis like the novel coronavirus. These measures attempt to mitigate the problem within the context of the fallen world, and to a significant degree often succeed, but they do not address the ultimate cause of these problems, which is the fallen world itself and the dominance of corruption and death resulting from human sin.
God is the source of life and order. Death, chaos and disorder slowly but surely take over when we turn away from Him. It is in this sense that we say He "sends" pestilence, illness, and war: He steps out of the way, He removes His protecting grace, He allows us to experience the natural consequence of our own choice to distance ourselves from Him, He respects our free will. And when we turn to Him, in the Church -- His new, redeemed creation -- when we draw near to Him again, to the source of life and order, then miraculous things occur, just as when Christ walked the earth in the flesh. Then, and only then, the root cause of the pestilence is addressed, and it begins to subside in a bigger way, a more substantial way, then it can do by natural means.
This is why, when we read new research suggesting that the virus will likely peak in June or that social distancing measures for up to 18 months may be necessary in order to delay long enough to find a vaccine – wow! – this is why we don’t panic or merely sit passively, spending our time at home on amusements. No. As Christians, we flee to God in fervent prayer, knowing that He has the power to make greater changes, and to do so more quickly.
This is why we pray.
But there is more, of course. As Christians, we know that this world passes away, and that all of the good things and bad things of this world are temporary. And so we must focus on the things that do not pass way, on the things that are eternal. Our prayer helps us with this. It refocuses our attention where it needs to be, on our need to repent of our sin, of our selfishness, of our constant tendency to turn away from God. It reminds us to turn back to Him, and to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, in the confidence that "all these things shall be added unto you".
We all sin every day, every minute. We all distance ourselves from the only source of life, of order, of truth. Let us be like the city of Ninevah when it hearkened to the call of Jonah. Let us all come together in prayer, and let our mutual prayer bring us together as we supplicate our good God who loves us.
I hope this encourages you as it did me.
A while back I posted some of the quotes I saw on Instagram that spoke to me. Here are a few others that seem appropriate right now.
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