February 25, 2021
500,000 – Half of 1 Million – 500,000
However you choose to look at it, 500,000 is a staggering number. It represents more life lost than was lost in four major wars. It is a number that we simply should not, must not, and cannot race by in our attempt to avoid the grim reality of what that number represents. This week, our nation passed this milestone – the sheer number of lives lost to the COVID-19 virus, this “Corona-tide” that we have been mired in for now nearly one whole year.
We are only two weeks shy, the third Sunday of Lent, March 15, 2020, of the Sunday we conducted our first virtual service, on-line, thinking we would be back in our beloved worship space in two short weeks! Signs are still posted that say, “Closed until March 27, 2020!” We promised ourselves surely we would be back by Easter, and planned a May “Celebration of New Ministry.” And then summer and fall gave way to liturgies of lament, and Advent, and Immanuel, God among Us, and here we are, staring into a number so unbelievable we can hardly imagine – 500,000 (and growing!).
And yet, we must imagine. It is important to imagine, to capture, to meditate upon, and to consider what that number, 500,000 really means. That 500,000 we see, down in the corner of our television screens, growing, exponentially, each night, represents hopes and dreams drown out in the reality of loss; the loss of potential that we are all too familiar with, particularly at St. Thomas the Apostle, because we witnessed that same tragic loss of potential over the course of many, many years of another pandemic. Potential energy that will never become kinetic, smiles that will never be given, dates that will never be gone on, humanity that will never be fulfilled.
500,000
Do you know someone represented in that 500,000? Many, if not most of us do, which makes the number all the more staggering. Bringing grief home makes humanity more tangible and real. It would be easy not to look, to think, to consider the humanity represented in each and every one of those 500,000.
But we simply cannot do that! When we do, a critical piece of our own humanity dies, and is buried along with the 500,000. We are all connected. What happens to each one of us affects all of us. It is why our mandate from the prophet Micah is so important, “…to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God.” (Micah 6:8) When we lessen or deny the humanity of anyone else, a piece of our own humanity dies.
So many of us are entering into the hope that vaccination brings, the promise of a day beyond COVID-19. Thank God this pandemic may finally end, and that number may someday soon cease to rise.
It’s important to remember, to pay attention to the humanity that has been lost. The way that we do that has much to say about the humanity of those of us who go on. Light a candle. Say a prayer. Keep a quiet moment, for humanity.
The humanity you care for is, in fact, your very own.
Yours on the journey,
Fr. Christopher+
