It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
A Tale of Two Cities — Charles Dickens
This is a strange time for our country. It is indeed the best of times and the worst of times.
On the one hand, we are stuck in our home under stay-at-home orders that only allow for limited liberty. On the other hand, various Orthodox scholars have rediscovered saints like St. Mary of Egypt and various desert monastics. St. Mary of Egypt (whose Sunday is today) did not partake of the Eucharist for 47 years. Various desert monastics had the practice of leaving their monastic dwellings at the start of Great Lent in order to dwell alone in the desert during all of Great Lent, returning only for Holy Week. They also did not partake of either communal worship or the Eucharist for an extended period of time.
These saintly people reminded us about the hesychastic tradition of the Church. That is, they reminded us that we have a mystical tradition of contemplative prayer that allow us to purify ourselves in order to have an encounter with God. The hesychastic tradition always remembers that such a contact is only when and if He wills. Nevertheless, hesychasm reminds us that the Eucharist is the primary way to receive from God, but not the only way. If the Eucharist is not available or if it a special time of setting ourselves apart for prayer and fasting, God can still be available to us.
Sadly, the other hand is that we have various priests and lay people who are writing as though the willingness of our bishops to submit to the governing authorities during this time is a capitulation to the powers of this world. On the one hand, writing that they will obey their bishops, their grumblings tell us clearly that they believe that their bishops are wrong. They look for the odd bishop or the odd country in which the bishop(s) has(ve) refused to obey and hail them as some type of hero. Quoting the Bill of Rights rather than the Bible, they speak as though our bishops have capitulated and fail to be full of the faith which supposedly will make us immune to the coronavirus.
On the plus side, multiple live streaming and online worship and Bible Study sessions have sprung up. The Church has been catapulted clearly into the 21st century. She has adapted and has deployed a variety of ways to reach out to those who are under stay-at-home orders. I have every expectation that some of these online encounters will continue long past the end of the stay-at-home orders.
I am a priest who covers a mission four and a half hours away from where I live. I had been going there every other week before the coronavirus. There are no effective during-the-week activities and the mission has not been growing. However, as a result of the coronavirus, we are setting up our first online coffee hour and Bible Study. What probably would have been greeted unfavorably prior to this infection is now greeted as a wonderful idea. I am fairly sure that it will continue in the future and may allow this to be a catalyst for church growth.
On the negative side, it is clear that multiple conspiracy theories that are completely unfounded are multiplying on the Internet. Unbelievable story follows unbelievable story and any detractors are waved off as being quislings or fellow travelers who are not willing to acknowledge the truth. Even our own bishops are not believed by some within our churches; they prefer to believe the conspiracy theory. False quotes and false news stories abound, particularly on Facebook, and there does not fail to be some who will believe them and forward them.
It is indeed the best of times and the worst of times. But, I have trust that the best of time will prevail. If they do not, then we have no hope.
Excellent post….specifically your description of the nexus between our involuntary self-quarantine (stay-at-home orders) and St. Mary of Egypt’s voluntary self-quarantine.