Unbearable Sadness

That is part of what we are all feeling these days - if we let ourselves.  Yesterday I spent much of the day in a stupor - not feeling much of anything.  Talked to some people, watched TV, read a little.  Sometimes I don't know exactly what I am doing at all.

Today I read Richard Rohr's email and thought about lamentation.  He wrote we are "stunned, sad and silenced by the tragedy and the absurdity of human events."   I know that as I talk to people we all express our frustration and our dismay  at the events of the past week.  Life as we know it has changed radically for everyone.

This morning I sat and thought about how much sadness there is to these days. I am inconvenienced by this pandemic but so many people are truly suffering.
 - A friend of Audrey's lost his mother this week.  I imagine that she died without her family near as they had to be quarantined.  And, of course, there can be no funeral "celebration of life" or the comfort of friends visiting and hugging during these days of physical distance.  That is the story for everyone who dies of this illness.
 - So many people are losing their jobs right now.  The congress is talking about giving $$ but can't possible pay all the bills.  What must that be like for them?
- I hear of the hard work and frustration of doctors and nurses.  Someone on TV said that in the hospital parking lot are doctors sleeping in their cars because they don't want to go home to infect their children.
 - there are people in nursing homes who cannot see family.  The family worries that without their presence, they will not get adequate care. 
- And then there is just the free floating fear and anxiety that is everywhere.  I keep hearing about how adult children try to convince their older parents to stay inside.  We are more at risk than we want to admit.  Or maybe it is too painful to admit it to ourselves.

One of the texts I read this morning was Luke 22: 42-44

It is Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane
"Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done."  An agnel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him.  And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground."

I think we all join Jesus in the garden - saying take this cup of suffering - (of Covid-19)  away.  I don't know where God's "will" operates in this situation but I trust in God's angels - that will appear and strengthen each of us in our hours of suffering.  That is my faith.

It is easy to pass these days in our own forms of distraction.  But sometimes the best way we can spend this time is in prayer.  Richard Rohr wrote:  "Globally, we're all in this together.  Depth is being forced on us by great suffering, which, as I like to say, always leads to great love."

My prayer is for all of us who are  - as the newscasters keep saying cheerily - " in this together. " These are long days as we live into this new - for now - normal of physical distance.  And these are days of true suffering for too many people in our world..  May we bear witness to their pain and hold them in prayer and - in our own way - be God's angels who do whatever we can do to love and strengthen others.

Here is a blessing by Maxine Shonk

May you be made holy when you become SADDENED by the reality around you.
May you be brought to the realization that God weeps and is troubled when you are troubled,
concerned when you are concerned.
May you realize also that God is compassionate when you are acompassionate
and gentle when you are gentle with the sorrows of another.
May you be blessed in the knowledge that God's presence is experienced through you.
May the God of PROMISE  bless you.