Interfaith Insight - 2020
Permanent link for "Responding in times of fear, with hope and a prayer" by Doug Kindschi on March 17, 2020
Schools are closed, athletic events canceled, store shelves empty, and a national emergency declared while the World Health Organization declares an official pandemic. And all this affects our faith communities as well. Most churches have cancelled or moved to live-streaming services. Pilgrimages to the Islamic holy sites in Mecca have been banned and the local Masjid At-Tawheed has suspended Friday prayers. Jewish services have been cancelled as well as other faith gatherings.
From a religious perspective it reminds us that we are not in charge as much as we would like to think. Things happen outside our control and our freedom has its limits.
It has been summed up beautifully by a Capuchin Franciscan priest and friar, Brother Richard Hendrick, who lives and works in Ireland. He teaches Christian meditation and mindfulness and works in the city center of Dublin. In a recent posting on Twitter, he wrote the following piece titled “Lockdown.”
“Yes there is fear.
Yes there is isolation.
Yes there is panic buying.
Yes there is sickness.
Yes there is even death.
But,
They say that in Wuhan after so many years of noise
You can hear the birds again.
They say that after just a few weeks of quiet
The sky is no longer thick with fumes
But blue and grey and clear.
They say that in the streets of Assisi
People are singing to each other
across the empty squares,
keeping their windows open
so that those who are alone
may hear the sounds of family around them.
They say that a hotel in the West of Ireland
Is offering free meals and delivery to the housebound.
Today a young woman I know
is busy spreading fliers with her number
through the neighborhood
So that the elders may have someone to call on.
Today Churches, Synagogues, Mosques and Temples
are preparing to welcome
and shelter the homeless, the sick, the weary.
All over the world people are slowing down and reflecting
All over the world people are looking at their neighbors in a new way
All over the world people are waking up to a new reality
To how big we really are.
To how little control we really have.
To what really matters.
To Love.
So we pray and we remember that
Yes there is fear.
But there does not have to be hate.
Yes there is isolation.
But there does not have to be loneliness.
Yes there is panic buying.
But there does not have to be meanness.
Yes there is sickness.
But there does not have to be disease of the soul.
Yes there is even death.
But there can always be a rebirth of love.
Wake to the choices you make as to how to live now.
Today, breathe.
Listen, behind the factory noises of your panic
The birds are singing again
The sky is clearing,
Spring is coming,
And we are always encompassed by Love.
Open the windows of your soul
And though you may not be able
to touch across the empty square,
Sing.”
It is also a time for prayer, and Cameron Bellm, a mother of two living in Seattle, offered on Instagram this “Prayer for a Pandemic.”
“May we who are merely inconvenienced
Remember those
whose lives are at stake.
May we who have no risk factors
Remember those most vulnerable.
May we who have the luxury
of working from home
Remember those who must choose between
preserving their health or making their rent.
May we who have the flexibility to care for our children when
their schools close
Remember those who have no options.
May we who have to cancel our trips
Remember those that
have no safe place to go.
May we who are losing our margin money
in the tumult of the economic market
Remember those who
have no margin at all.
May we who settle in for a quarantine at
home
Remember those who have no home.
As fear grips our
country,
let us choose love.
During this time when we
cannot physically wrap our arms around each other,
Let us
yet find ways to be the loving embrace of God to our neighbors.
Amen.”