For me, the most surreal experiences during this crisis have been when things are not, for a moment, surreal. The world is ending, right? This is one of those historic plagues that you read about in history books, is it not? We did voluntarily shut down our economy, didn’t we? And yet, something normal has the audacity to break through?
I hope for you these moments of surreal normalcy have been joyful, ordinary, domestic things, like still having to mow the lawn or cook dinner. Where, without even realizing it, we fall back into old habits and then catch ourselves, startled that for an indeterminate amount of time, we forgot that there was anything extraordinary happening around us.
For a priest, though, as macabre as it may seem, that normalcy often involves death. For a family, the passing of a loved one is a significant and impactful moment. Six years later, I still vividly remember the passing of my grandfather, crying with my family, attending his funeral. But for a priest, we visit the hospital multiple times each week, and a few times each month we mourn with grieving families in hospice houses, at funerals, and at gravesides. This month has been no exception. We have lost some longtime parishioners, in at least one instance to the Coronavirus, but mostly just because, even when the world is ending, people still die from incurable disease and old age. The ordinary cycles of life and death have had the audacity to continue, even now.
And yet, through it all, I have not been able to shake this persistent, nagging feeling of hope. Partly because it has all been a reminder that, even when everything is different, nothing is. But mostly because this is the Easter Season, when we celebrate the Lord’s victory over death. As I have prayed the Church’s prayers for the dying and the dead, I have heard announced again and again our firm belief that the Resurrection of the Lord is our hope, too, and that what once was our greatest loss has now become our most triumphal gain: the attainment of true peace, of perfect relationship, and of never-ending communion with Jesus and the saints. As Christians, we have nothing to fear, because the Lord goes before us and we share in his victory.
Fr. Moore 