Our 2nd Easter Season in This C-Virus Mess

Happy Easter!

Despite remaining caught up in our C-Virus Mess, Lent ended and Easter has arrived right on time. The Liturgical Calendar forges ahead despite the world and its mayhem.

Easter brings the joy of the Resurrection. Some of that joy may spill over into our work today. As it does, it will likely meet a host of less than joyful thoughts and feelings that have mushroomed in the year or so of C-Virus Mess that has yet to release its grip. 

The COVID pandemic broke out early in 2020, shortly before Lent began. The lock-down regimes took hold a bit after Ash Wednesday. At that time, based on what turned out to be exaggerated prospects of severe sickness and death upon contact with the virus, many of us were full of fear. We kept ourselves locked away, hardly venturing out. Commerce ground to a halt in many industries. Office buildings emptied out (and many remain mostly empty to this day). Initial expectations that the lock-downs would end within a few weeks dissipated and the economy experienced a collapse worse than that which occurred in the Great Depression. 

Remember?

Many of us who work for a living lost our jobs. Many of these remain unemployed. Some of us, on the other hand, kept our jobs, with most of those working from home. Many working from home for the first time found the experience less than optimal, but there was no choice. Many remain at home even now. One hopes that over the last year, new habits were formed that at least mitigated the down side of pursuing our occupations hastily relocated to a make-shift home office. 

In families with children in school, students were sequestered at home, so working from home had to incorporate dealing with added distractions: close quarters with children struggling with technology-challenged online classes; competition for limited internet bandwidth.

While I know a few folks who have returned to their job locations (e.g., some teachers) and some whose situation remained the same (police officers, hospital workers, some retail store workers, etc.), the majority of folks in my circle remain working from home. I suspect some - maybe most - will make working from home a steady diet. 

As mentioned in the past, my own business did change somewhat. But having already spent a majority of time working from home, that aspect didn't cause any distraction or discombobulation. As for the health of the business, it's been rattled a bit, but so far nothing that's caused a permanent impairment or threat to overall health.

Last year, our post-Easter Sunday post focused almost exclusively on Lent having ended, the Easter Season having begun, and the graces we had gained and would gain to help us deal with the Mess we were all experiencing in one degree or another. If interested, if needed, you can find what we said HERE. 

This year, though, having labored in the bowels of this Mess for now over a year, I figured we were all tough enough to face the stark realities that have confronted us in different ways, depending on the nature of our work and our individual temperaments and personalities. Since so little has changed, never mind improved, after a year, the reality has to have sunk in that many of us face an uncertain future. Even if we keep our current occupations, we're not sure what that will look and feel like, even if things actually do substantially improve.

There's no use pretending everything hunky-dory when it isn't. And if you want to believe it's only a matter of every Tom, Dick, and Harry getting the "jab," then go ahead and believe it. Short of any convincing evidence to the contrary, we may be slogging through more Mess for the foreseeable future.

On the other hand, in our struggles, we have the joy of Easter and promise that comes with Christ's Resurrection to hold us together. It's not so different than life-before-COVID (remember that?). When Easter arrived, a mix of relief at the easing of our Lenten discipline and great joy in the message of Our Lord's Resurrection: Not only were the Gates of Heaven opened for all those who die in a state of grace, but some day our souls will be reunited with a glorified body. Always something that caused a degree of rejoicing, I've recently thought of eternity spent in complete happiness with my loved ones, none of us sad, anxious, suffering, sick, etc. 

So despite this dragged out C-Virus Mess that won't quite let go yet, Easter still injects a joyful energy that keeps us on our toes, not simply to do our jobs, but perhaps even to spiritually dance to the joyful "Alleluias" that we'll be hearing in abundance during our Liturgies.

Easter at work remains a great and glorious time after all.

Happy Easter!