Faith: Coronavirus crisis could mean spiritual awakening, so that good, not bad, emerges
Pandemic. It’s on all our minds right now, whether we are lonely in our solo sheltering-in-place, or going crazy trying to shelter with a whole bunch of family members, including kids we never thought we’d be home-schooling.
As a minister, I think a lot about how this is affecting people spiritually, and wondering whether COVID-19 might have a lasting effect on our behavior, our world, how we are with each other.
The effect could be bad, and we could end up aggressive and fearful, as some folks are doing right now. There’s the Idaho lawmaker who shockingly, mean-spiritedly and ignorantly decided we are in a Nazi country. She compared a constructive, life-affirming governmental order to being put on the trains that took Jews to concentration camps, where they suffered and died by the millions.
There’s the neighbor of a newcomer to Boise, who has gotten hysterical and aggressive about the fact that drops from the newcomer’s sprinklers were escaping into her yard.
This kind of response reflects the aggression and meanness that humans are capable of, and I am sorry to see it. I devoutly hope the pandemic does not end up pushing us in those directions.
More importantly, I pray that all the good I see around me will continue, and that we will emerge better connected, with each other and the Holy.
The emergence of good may take a change in outlook from many of us, right now. My friend Lynn Ungar, Unitarian Universalist minister and poet, asks us in her beautiful poem “Pandemic,” “What if you thought of it as the Jews consider the Sabbath — the most sacred of times?” She advises us: “Sing. Pray. Touch only those to whom you commit your life. Center down.”
If we are able to feel as Lynn suggests during this time, maybe the good I see and feel around me will become a way of life after the coronavirus is not threatening all of our lives. I realize that this is a huge hope, but these are radical times, and I hold to the possibility that radical good may emerge.
Think of the first responders and all the medical people, putting their lives on the line every single day, in order that the sick may be attended. I have a friend who is undergoing chemotherapy. He thanked the nurse for his care. The nurse replied, “I love my work, and I am grateful every day that I have a job.”
The birds are singing louder and the bears are returning en masse to their homes in Yosemite and Yellowstone. Smog has virtually disappeared from Los Angeles and major Chinese cities. Will it be possible for us to come out of this with a permanent sense that we share this beautiful planet with all kinds of other life?
There is so much friendliness as my husband and I take our daily walks. Our church has come up with all kinds of spiritual and stimulating Zoom activities, including wonderful worship services, followed by very fun “coffee hour chats” in small Zoom groups. How often do we have the opportunity to talk and listen, even for 15 minutes, with a half-dozen randomly chosen people, to share and hear happiness, sadness, fear, joy?
Think of all the companies (the ones that still function), the publications, the stores that are showing amazing generosity and compassion.
Reflecting on such faith, hope and love, I close by quoting other people concerned about the same things so many of us are. They ask the spiritual questions and lift up, as we all do, our hope for a kinder, more loving, more sacred future.
“How does this forced stop become something other than grief and loss? What is this moment teaching you about the person you are becoming now and want to be on the other side?” Krista Tippett asks.
“If we can actively accompany each other in just holding that question, that might be a spiritual calling, (and also) a civilizational calling for this very extraordinary transition.’”
May it be so.