Sacrifices of Lent....Courtesy of the Coronavirus

I wrote a blog a few weeks ago about taking a time-out with God, courtesy of the coronavirus. As a Catholic speaker I often give a keynote address about how I was forced to take a time-out with God because of a freak leg injury and then cancer.   In that first blog, I reflected on how the coronavirus was forcing all of us to take a time-out with God. What I did not appreciate was how significantly and quickly things would change. More than a time-out, we are facing many sacrifices now because of the coronavirus. As we start Holy Week, let's reflect on the sacrifices of this pandemic, and in that perhaps we can find the true gifts.

So much has changed in just a few short weeks. Schools are now closed. People, fortunate enough to still have a job, are being asked to work from home. Restaurants are shut down except for carry–out and delivery in many locations. Sporting events, graduations and even weddings are being cancelled or postponed. Cities and states are shutting down. Saddest of all, mass and receiving communion has stopped all over.  

Lent is a time of sacrifice, of deepening our relationship with God. Could it be that the pandemic, in forcing so many sacrifices, is helping each of us turn our attention to God?   Are we not ever so grateful for the food we do have? Are children playing outside more and simply being children? As parents, are we doing more to educate the children ourselves? Are we not learning to be a cohesive family again, to be present to each other?

One thing I see more than anything these days is panic, the fear that is both driving and paralyzing people. Yes, these days are different than just a few weeks ago, but there is no need to panic, there is no need to be afraid. Isn’t it said in the bible 365 different times, “be not afraid”? Perhaps this is the Lent where we give up our fear and learn to truly trust in God.

All we hear about these days is “social distancing”. I would offer that social distancing is from other humans, not God. In fact, we have more opportunity than ever to be close to God. He is beside us, on that walk outside, as we eat together as families, as we read and pray, we simply have to turn to him. More than ever, the priests are finding new ways to bring spiritual fruit to us. You can go to Mass on-line, every day, at all times of the day. You can attend Adoration, on-line. You can go to confession to priests in the drive through stations that have been set up. There are multiple story-times set up for the children, on-line. While we are socially distancing from each other, we have many opportunities to become spiritually closer to God.

We are being forced to stay in, to stay together as a family unit, to take a time out, and in that is the gift of leaning into God, if we choose to accept it. God is waiting for us, he is longing for us and the world has offered us the gift of shutting things down so that we can open ourselves up to him.

Isn’t that true of sacrifices? That a sacrifice causes us to reassess: it is a giving of ourselves for transformational purposes. We can embrace our sacrifices and recognize that this pandemic is opening up such clear pathways to God, so that we can be transformed.

There is a hunger in our sacrifices. I don’t know about you, but when I give up chocolate for Lent, it seems like chocolate is all around me and I can’t wait until Lent is over so I can have a piece again. Somehow simply knowing we can’t have it makes it all the more desirable. How I hope that in this time of the pandemic, Catholics the world over long even more fully for the real Body and Bloodof Christ. How I hope that in its unavailability to us, we become deeply desirous of the sacrament of communion. 

In a society that takes so many things for granted: people, restaurants, sporting events, and yes, even holy communion, perhaps this sacrifice will help remind us of how precious the Body and Bloodof Christ really is for us. Perhaps the sacrifice this Lent will ignite the hunger in us to truly turn to God, to choose good, to value each other and to recognize this transformational time in our lives.

One of my favorite quotes, I reference it often, is from Mother Thecla of the Daughters of St. Paul when she says “God is a very good cameraman and will project the film of our lives. Let us be radiant stars.” This is our time, in our sacrifices this Lent, to show others how we can live and love Christ each and every day. We can be the radiant stars, by leaning into God, not being afraid, and offering up these sacrifices as we await his resurrection, celebrated on Easter.