Our Third Easter Since the Pandemic Descended Upon Us
Happy Easter!
Despite remaining caught up in our C-Virus Mess, despite the war in Europe, despite the increase in inflation and the potentially increasing shortages of food and other goods due to supply chain issues, Lent ended and Easter has arrived right on time. Now Easter brings the joy of the Resurrection. If that joy butts heads with the troubles we mentioned that have piled on over the last year or so, well, that's the way of the world.
Reminder: Our Lord, as a result of His Passion, Death, and Resurrection,
has overcome the world. Hold that thought. Treasure it. It will provide
ballast and balance in the face of all the distraction, disruption,
dysfunction, and discombobulation that the world's troubles continue to drop on our
heads.
So why bring up the troubles brewing out there on this glorious day? For on thing, because, despite Our Lord's ultimate triumph, there's no use pretending everything hunky-dory when it isn't. Without getting caught up in the particulars, it's looking more and more like inflation, food and other supply issues, even war, will now become more and more of our daily diet as we work our way through the rest of 2022, if not the rest of this decade.
Easter looks through and past all this. But we're still here in the Vale of Tears until our own (we hope and pray) triumph. We celebrate the Resurrection, trust in Our Lord's ultimate triumph, and ask for the grace and the courage to face whatever awaits us.
And lest we let whatever may be put a damper on our Easter, maybe we recall that last year, some of us who work for a living lost our jobs due to the ridiculous lock-downs that killed a lot of businesses and pulled the rug out from under many others. Indeed some may still remain unemployed.
For those of us still working, many found working from home for the first time less than optimal, but may have eventually acclimated themselves to the challenge, forming new habits that at least mitigated the down side of pursuing our occupations hastily relocated to a make-shift home office.
While I know a few folks who have returned to their job locations (e.g., some teachers) and some whose situation never changed (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.
Having labored in the bowels of this Mess going into its third year, never mind the new troubles mentioned above, let's hope we're 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. The fact is, many - if not most of us - face an uncertain future.
In our work lives, if we
keep our current occupations, we're not sure what that will look and
feel like, even if things actually do stabilize or improve.
As for our personal lives, we may want to simply work on the fundamentals: Pray, receive the Sacraments, spend time reading good spiritual works, the Scriptures, as well as continuing study of our Catholic Religion. There's always more to learn. Anchoring our Catholic Faith on solid ground with these daily efforts, we'll be prepared for the inevitable twists and turns that will likely come our way.
Of course, in all this, our goal must always be to grow closer to Our Lord. He just proved the depth of His love for us. We know this if we meditated on His Passion during Lent and now revel in His Resurrection.
So
despite this dragged out C-Virus Mess and the troubles that keep piling on,
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 the glorious Easter Season.
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