Church is closed. There is no meat. There are no celebrations and large gatherings. People are spending more time alone and separate from the routines that rule their lives. If you think I am referring to the coronavirus, you’d be wrong. I’m actually talking about Great Lent. We are now in the late stages of Great Lent. For weeks, the church altar has been closed. There is no meat. There are no celebrations; no weddings or church dances. During Lent, we detach ourselves from our regular routines and comforts that it seems like we can’t live without, to discover something more. Dear readers, the coronavirus has merely intensified our Great Lent. By saying this I am not minimizing its threat in the least. It is dangerous, and it is our civic and Christian duty to do whatever we can to stop its spread by following all the restrictions recommended by civil authorities and our church.
But while we can only do our best to control the spread of this virus, the one thing we can totally control, with God’s help, is how we respond to it. And today I hope I can encourage and challenge you that we know how to respond as Christians to seasons of great trial, because we practice it each year during Great Lent. And if we see the coronavirus in the same light as we see great Lent, we can allow God to turn the anxieties and restrictions of this trial into a deeper trust in Him and a closer communion with our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Jesus of course, as in all things, is our great teacher and guide in responding to seasons of trial. He instituted the season of Great Lent in his fast for 40 days and 40 nights in the desert, the precursor for his world-changing ministry. I was delighted the other day when by brother in Christ, Fr. Ghevond Ajemian, shared with me the old Latin word used for Jesus’ 40-day fast. It is ‘Quarantine,’ from the Latin for 40. That’s right, being separated, quarantined as we are now, was the word invented by Jesus’ unprecedented 40 day trial, which we recall to this day during Great Lent. But not only during Great Lent. In the Armenian Church we also recall it in the priest’s karasoonk-the 40 day period after ordination, in a mother’s 40 day separation after birth of her child and in a family’s 40 days mourning of the loss of a loved one. All of these are quarantines of social isolation, but all for a greater purpose. Jesus’ didn’t see a soul during his quarantine, but that helped him to see his Heavenly Father all the more clearly. Jesus was hungry, but his hunger seemed to deepen his empathy for those multitudes who are hungry every day. Jesus was insecure, but this seemed to deepen his trust in God and in the potential goodness of his friends and followers.
If we follow Jesus in our Bibles, in our worship and prayer we can right now transform this coronavirus quarantine of social isolation into the original quarantine that Jesus invented; a season of trial and separation that we emerge from with greater love and grace. As with all spiritual trials, we can ignore it and go a different way, but it will certainly be to our detriment. Just look around and see people hording goods from store shelves, getting in line to buy another weapon, or partying on the beach as if nothing were happening. There are one hundred compulsive behaviors that help us deny and detach from our vulnerability in times of trial, but the one thing needed is to bring our anxiety unto God and be strengthened by His grace.
And remember, this isn’t our first time around. We Armenian Christians have experience in this sort of thing, of leaving off our regular ways and letting God lead us through a season of trial. We practice it every year during Great Lent. And I have every belief that this Lent, like every other, will hold great blessings for all who see its hardship as a means to grow closer to each other and God. So yes, let’s distance ourselves as appropriate, but let’s make sure we reach out more than ever, with a phone call or note to those who are truly isolated to let them know we are praying for them. Yes, the normal ways of gathering and growing as Christians are restricted, but let’s all be creative in learning the word of God through a Bible app or a streaming sermon or Bible Study. And yes, while so many things are cancelled in this season of quarantine, let us be keenly aware that our calling to grow as Christians is most certainly not cancelled. In fact, it is during these days of trial, that deep trust in God and self-less love for others is tried and tested, and forms us into the people of God he calls us to be, now and always; amen.