Finally April

It’s finally April, 2020. Some are home every day, all day long – with kids. Others are stocking supermarket shelves, mopping hospital floors, nursing the dying, or trouble-shooting internet issues. Thank you. I’m a hybrid myself, working part-time at The Salvation Army, filing reports, delivering meals to the elderly, writing grant proposals, and assembling week-ender bags of food to distribute to hungry kids. 

I glanced out the lobby window at work and caught a glimpse of a lonely daffodil. Looking further, I noticed a twenty-foot border of flowers, their lemon and white colors a stark contrast against the dull brown earth and my gray-tinged emotions.

Daffodils are also called Lenten Lilies, appearing around Ash Wednesday and blooming through Easter, marking the forty days before Jesus’ crucifixion, death and resurrection. Lent 2020 has been devoid of communal gatherings for Lenten luncheons and the popular Friday night fish fries, and Holy Week (the week before Easter) will be missing the traditional reenactments of the Last Supper, Good Friday services, even the darkness of the Tenebrae. 

Acknowledging my readers of various faith traditions or no expression of faith, I understand that not all find solace or connection within a Christian framework. Yet for all of us, Walter Wangarin’s words to Mary Magdalene following the death of Jesus are powerful. “Even in your despair, observe the rituals.” 

Here are some faith-inspired rituals that I’m practicing, or choose others that fit for you. As a teen-ager, I painstakingly practiced “The Palms,” Jean-Baptiste Faure’s grand anthem of praise. Tomorrow, Palm Sunday, I may give it a go at the piano, but probably will listen on-line instead. Or maybe I’ll put some semblance of a palm branch on the door or slip the word “hosanna” into conversation. 

One of the funniest memes flooding social media is a photo of the new Easter dresses for 2020, taken in Wal-Mart’s nightgown department. We may be isolated, but we don’t have to spend every day in our Disney nightshirt (guilty). On Monday, choose the rituals of self-care. Shower. Get dressed. Do your make-up. Style your raggedy hair (me too). And wash your hands!

For Tuesday, I will chose to serve. A phone call of encouragement. A word of thanks to the fast-food worker. Groceries left on a neighbor’s porch. And whatever is needed at The Salvation Army. 

As a ritual for Wednesday, might we fast and pray? Fast from food, from chocolate, from Facebook or Twitter, from criticism, from hate? Pray for ourselves, our family, our community, the world?

On Thursday of Holy Week, the church observes the Last Supper (communion), where Jesus and his disciples gathered at the Passover meal (see Luke 22). Dr. Paul Chilcote, formerly of Ashland Theological Seminary, tells a story from a Latin American prison. Having no provisions for the celebration of Holy Communion, the pastorelevated his empty hands and said: “The bread [and wine] which we do not have today is a reminder of those who are hungry, for those who are oppressed, and for those who yearn for the provision that only God can give.” On Thursday, remember those who are hungry. Who are grieving. Who are frightened.

On Good Friday, I’ll welcome the music of the day. “The Old Rugged Cross.” Glad’s acapella version of “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.” “O Sacred Head Now Wounded,” sung since the Middle Ages. Stuart and Townsend’s “How Deep the Father’s Love” and “In Christ Alone.” Keith and Krysten Getty singing “The Power of the Cross.”  

Saturday? Time for the ritual of nostalgia, coloring some eggs and listening to Gene Autry’s “Here Comes Peter Cottontail” and Judy Garland’s “In Your Easter Bonnet.” I may eat another handful of Cadbury Mini-Eggs too. 

Wangarin had more to say to Mary: “Pray your prayers. However hollow and unsatisfying they may feel, God can fill them . . . He can make of your mouthings a prayer – and of your groanings a hymn. Observe the ritual. Prepare your spices.” For the story is not over. Tony Campolo speaks prophetically: “Friday’s here, but Sunday’s coming.” Google it and listen in. And for now, “Observe the ritual. Prepare the spices.” Wash your hands. Be kind. We will get through this.