What Hardtimes Offer Us

Gift of Grace

“What a liberating thing to realize that our problems are probably our richest sources for rising to the ultimate virtue of compassion.”

Krista Tippett

          One of the things that seems to be arising from this pandemic is the virtue of compassion in everyday people. We appear to be relating to one another with gratitude and kinship in a way that simply didn’t happen before. I feel it in myself, and I see it in others, too. Hardship tends to deflate one’s ego. When we encounter situations in which our intellect and our street-smarts fail us, we get down off our high-horse a little bit and realize our shared humanity. We are humbled by our ineptitude. When, in the face of great loss of life and suffering, we don’t feel compassion and contrition, as our president seems not to do, there is something exceptionally wrong with the character and psyche of that person.

          Krista Tippett says, “Compassion also brings us into the territory of mystery—encouraging us not just to see beauty, but perhaps to look for the face of God in the moment of suffering, in the face of the stranger, in the face of the vibrant religious other.” What I’m seeing in this moment is many people pointing to silver linings amid this terrible loss of life. Even as people die by the hundreds every day, others are stepping up to donate their time and talents to help the cause and alleviate the suffering. The bone-grinding demands on our healthcare providers is opening the hearts of people everywhere. We are praying with more intensity than I have ever witnessed in my life.

          Today is Passover. Jewish people will not be able to celebrate in the traditional way by gathering the whole family for the ritual meal, but they will perhaps understand the meaning of Passover more intensely than they have in recent years. Like the ancient Hebrews, we are all waiting, watching and praying for the angel of death to pass over us, and spare our lives. Caroline Myss offered to host a virtual rosary prayer group and ten-thousand people showed up to pray with her. This time of trial is bringing us back to ground and opening our hearts in ways that prosperity never could. It is a moment of suffering in which we see grace with our own eyes.

          I am deeply sorry that it has taken a pandemic and so much death to wake us up to our own creatureliness, our own smallness in the face of the mystery. I hope we will not lose this awareness when normal life resumes. There is a gift of grace in this maelstrom. I pray that we receive it and tuck it into our hearts for safekeeping.

                                                  In the Spirit,

                                                  Jane