A Season of Lament

The number of victims multiply and the coronavirus spreads.  The largest single-day increase of new coronavirus cases worldwide occurred yesterday.  The number of cases worldwide has now exceeded 1 million.  The U.S. is the new epicenter with over 245,000 cases (more than any other of the 171 countries inflicted with the virus).  Over 6,000 Americans have died from COVID-19.  This is the new reality.  It cannot be swept under the rug.

Public health experts, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, say the only way to lower the spread is through social distancing and staying at home.  “If you back off, and you don’t mitigate,” Fauci told CNN, “there is a possibility that number (of deaths) will go up…And that is the worst possible thing in the world you want to see.  And that’s the reason why I am so adamant about when we say we have got to follow those guidelines, you really got to take it seriously.”  

Some governors have been reluctant to order “shut downs” and remain reluctant to take the virus seriously.  At the national level, though we are willing to “shut down” the government over some political or partisan divide, we seem unwilling to “shut down” in the midst of a pandemic.  If we see the present challenge as “a war” then let us declare war and put the whole of the country on a wartime alert (a complete and national shutdown).   Some churches refuse to close their doors, even while being told that religious gatherings are proven hotbeds for the virus.  Some people refuse to stay at home.  To really  “Love One Another” right now is a matter of keeping our distance from one another!

We want it to be over.  We want an explanation.  We pray to the One who calmed the wind and the sea.  We want relief.  But, N.T. Wright suggests, that  what we might need more is to recover the biblical tradition of lament.  “Lament,” Wright says, “is what happens when people ask, ‘Why?’ and don’t get an answer. It’s where we get to when we move beyond our self-centered worry about our sins and failings and look more broadly at the suffering of the world.”