Good Friday: The Markets are Closed...Along with Everything Else!
It's Good Friday. The markets are closed, as they have been in past years. Only this year, everything else - or almost everything - is closed too. We're in the belly of a Coronavirus beast.
Besides being bereft of much of the material world, our spiritual lives have been turned upside down. Here's what it looks like from my perspective as a practicing Catholic:
There will be no Good Friday liturgy at our parish, as there will be none just about anywhere these days. Just as there was no Holy Thursday Mass. Just as there will be no Mass on Easter Sunday. And this will be true throughout the world
Nothing like this has ever happened in any of our lifetimes. I wonder if anything remotely close to this has ever happened at any time since Christ rose from the dead and left us here with his Holy Catholic Church to carry on in His Name.
I was going to post something about the continuing grinding down of the economy. Or maybe something about how stocks have been and likely will continue to bounce up after the fastest, deepest drop in history. There's interesting history we could cite to help us understand what's likely going to happen short-term in the markets. But I won't.
When it comes to history - even something unique like we're all experiencing now - it's good to remember that history passes. And while it doesn't seem so when you're in the thick of this C-virus mess, it passes quickly. From the long lens of the life of the universe, our current troubles are a blip at best.
But calling it a blip may not provide the greatest consolation and comfort. At least it doesn't for me. For that, I turn to my Faith and my Holy Catholic religion. As practiced since Jesus Christ rose from the dead and ascended into Heaven, it has always found a way for us to address the greatest disasters. These began with the persecutions of the early Christians by the Roman emperors. It continued through the difficult years after the fall of Rome - the so-called Dark Ages. Then there was the Black Death - the plague that wiped out as much as 1/3rd of the population of Europe in the 14th century. And those are simply a few highlights.
While the plague of the 14th century was the culmination of series of calamities (see Barbara Tuchman's A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century), some of us were alive during the equally calamitous 20th century. The lowlights: two World Wars the second of which saw the horrendous Holocaust perpetrated by the Nazi regime along with the barbarism of the Japanese Empire exemplified in the Rape of Nanking. And it didn't stop there.
Through it all, the Church faithfully and continually offered whatever help and consolation possible in the midst of the horrors. It may not have stopped the horror and the terror of such dark times. But it did what it could in worldly terms. And for those who refused to despair, who remained true to their faith, it offered even the most miserable victim the promise of eternal happiness - not in this world, but in the World to come.
And this brings us to Easter - with or without the Mass.
Easter remains and will remain our most glorious and Holy Season. Whatever our personal circumstances in this current mess, we can raise our gaze towards that glory. Not only can we gaze upon it, but we can yearn for it. And with the virtue of Hope we can seek to join the glory of the angels and saints - some of whom will likely be our beloved family and friends - in that state of eternal happiness Our Lord assured us by His Passion, Death, and Resurrection.
These aren't just words. They describe reality - the ultimate reality. What's surrounding us now - annoying and difficult as it might be - is a mere shadow, a second-rate side-show that can hold our full attention only if we let it. With God's grace, during this glorious Easter Season, we can free our minds and hearts from our tawdry life in this Vale of Tears, and look to the Big Show - a better and greater - actually the best and greatest - life to come.
Besides being bereft of much of the material world, our spiritual lives have been turned upside down. Here's what it looks like from my perspective as a practicing Catholic:
There will be no Good Friday liturgy at our parish, as there will be none just about anywhere these days. Just as there was no Holy Thursday Mass. Just as there will be no Mass on Easter Sunday. And this will be true throughout the world
Nothing like this has ever happened in any of our lifetimes. I wonder if anything remotely close to this has ever happened at any time since Christ rose from the dead and left us here with his Holy Catholic Church to carry on in His Name.
I was going to post something about the continuing grinding down of the economy. Or maybe something about how stocks have been and likely will continue to bounce up after the fastest, deepest drop in history. There's interesting history we could cite to help us understand what's likely going to happen short-term in the markets. But I won't.
When it comes to history - even something unique like we're all experiencing now - it's good to remember that history passes. And while it doesn't seem so when you're in the thick of this C-virus mess, it passes quickly. From the long lens of the life of the universe, our current troubles are a blip at best.
But calling it a blip may not provide the greatest consolation and comfort. At least it doesn't for me. For that, I turn to my Faith and my Holy Catholic religion. As practiced since Jesus Christ rose from the dead and ascended into Heaven, it has always found a way for us to address the greatest disasters. These began with the persecutions of the early Christians by the Roman emperors. It continued through the difficult years after the fall of Rome - the so-called Dark Ages. Then there was the Black Death - the plague that wiped out as much as 1/3rd of the population of Europe in the 14th century. And those are simply a few highlights.
While the plague of the 14th century was the culmination of series of calamities (see Barbara Tuchman's A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century), some of us were alive during the equally calamitous 20th century. The lowlights: two World Wars the second of which saw the horrendous Holocaust perpetrated by the Nazi regime along with the barbarism of the Japanese Empire exemplified in the Rape of Nanking. And it didn't stop there.
Through it all, the Church faithfully and continually offered whatever help and consolation possible in the midst of the horrors. It may not have stopped the horror and the terror of such dark times. But it did what it could in worldly terms. And for those who refused to despair, who remained true to their faith, it offered even the most miserable victim the promise of eternal happiness - not in this world, but in the World to come.
And this brings us to Easter - with or without the Mass.
Easter remains and will remain our most glorious and Holy Season. Whatever our personal circumstances in this current mess, we can raise our gaze towards that glory. Not only can we gaze upon it, but we can yearn for it. And with the virtue of Hope we can seek to join the glory of the angels and saints - some of whom will likely be our beloved family and friends - in that state of eternal happiness Our Lord assured us by His Passion, Death, and Resurrection.
These aren't just words. They describe reality - the ultimate reality. What's surrounding us now - annoying and difficult as it might be - is a mere shadow, a second-rate side-show that can hold our full attention only if we let it. With God's grace, during this glorious Easter Season, we can free our minds and hearts from our tawdry life in this Vale of Tears, and look to the Big Show - a better and greater - actually the best and greatest - life to come.
Happy Easter!
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