Homily

It has our attention. It has our attention, doesn’t it? There’s hardly a person in the United States who hasn’t heard about it. A tiny, microscopic organism, a virus, that infects the respiratory tract and can even lead to death. It has our attention as the seating arrangement here in church today proves. And it comes to us during a time of the year when our attention is supposed to be focused somewhere else, when we are supposed to be paying more attention to Jesus Christ and our life in Him. This is prime time enjoyment for Satan who must surely be enjoying the fear, the anxiety, the disruption to life and the distraction from faith this virus seems to cause in too many people. The night before He died Jesus prayed that His disciples would be one, not a people who have to sit six feet away from each other. And all this grief is caused by a tiny little destructive organism. A little bitty reminder that we all are mortal. And it’s shaken up our world. And for many it has distracted their attention away from the Lord.

Try to imagine for a minute what the opposite would be like. We are reading in the Acts of the Apostles at Wednesday Bible study about the rapid growth of the Church after Pentecost, and how, in one place after another, people came to believe in Jesus Christ and gave joyful thanks to God for their new faith. Imagine something in our society today turning people’s attention to Jesus Christ instead of to a virus. Imagine that the churches would be so full that Liturgy would have to be livestreamed because not everyone could fit into the building. People would show up a half hour early so they could get a parking spot. Imagine people rushing to get to church instead of to Costco. What if instead of panic shopping at food stores people were willing to share what they had with those in need. (I was at Albertson’s on Tuesday and there was not a single bag of flour left on the shelves. Flour! So, what, now everybody is suddenly baking their own bread? I don’t think so!)

Imagine something that would prompt people to open their Bibles instead of constantly scanning the internet for more epidemic news. Imagine Netflix stocks sinking to the basement because people are spending more time in prayer instead of watching TV. Imagine something that would move people to call upon the Divine Physician first and then calling the family doctor next when they were sick. Imagine a people who faced the prospect of death not with panic and terror but with faith and hope.

Shouldn’t WE be those people? That’s our calling, that’s our hope, that’s the source of our joy. We must be the people who continue to labor and grow in our faith that we can face death with confidence in Christ and the promise of the Resurrection, His gift of eternal life. Coronavirus may not get us, and I pray that is true, but I am pretty sure, one time or another, something else will. With our thoughts refocused on the truth, once again, that we will all die, how should we live today? What should we do? What should be changed so that we are the people who will be able to say, when our life comes to a close, that we are truly going home?

What good does it do to sing “Christ is risen” if that truth doesn’t sink, more and more, into our very bones? What point is there in singing, “by death He conquered death” unless we are willing to trust Him with our own deaths?

Naturally, we have to pay some attention to the current situation. Naturally, we should take precautions as seem good to do. Naturally, there is nothing wrong with having a healthy respect for this disease. But at the same time, we are not just natural human beings. We are sons and daughters of the living God, baptized into the life of the Holy Trinity, not simply flesh and blood to be ignored at some future pathetic “Celebration of Life.”

We can let this epidemic hold grab our attention and hold it fast, breathlessly waiting for the next piece of news which we always find so very comforting, or we can use it to refocus, more sharply, this Lent, our attention to Christ. Which one do we want to do? As Jesus says, “this kind cannot be driven out except by prayer and fasting.” And today, I say, “Christ is among us!” Let’s look to Him, talk with Him and listen to Him. He is not doom and gloom. He is joy for all who truly know Him.