I have been thinking about Pompeii. About Hiroshima and Nagasaki. About those pictures we have all of us seen--and what some have seen up close--about the moment disaster struck: People caught in the middle of some activity and just... frozen. In mid-jump or whatever.

from livescience.com

I have been thinking about that because it seems to me that that is what has happened to us, in a way. Not as dramatically, localized or instantaneously--and certainly not as catastrophically, at least so far--but perhaps as arrestingly: we were going about our lives, our business, church, more or less normally, and now we are stunned, stopped, trying to climb out from under it.

The guy to the left here speaks to me like sad poetry. And even if he should escape the wrath of Vesuvius, which of course he did not, what will his life, or the life of Pompeii, be like on the other side of it? 

from Pinterest

The child to the right, mined from Pinterest, looks too "perfect," though I have not been able to find any indication that it is inauthentic. Even if it were staged or photo-shopped, the truth is beyond dispute (and what was it Picasso said? That art is a lie that helps us see the truth? I suspect the reverse is a good way to describe the gospel: the Truth that helps us see the lie of the world and its values). In any case, comes a moment that forever divides things into before and after, and we must try to cross the Rubicon of that moment and live into the new reality it signals.      

So, what will our lives be like on the other side of COVID-19? Who but God knows? But surely there will be some of what we learn and experience, even if most of if will fade.  

Those of you who are familiar with The Hunger Games, either the books or the movie, will remember that moment when Haymitch reads to Katniss the letter from Plutarch: "The war is over. We're in that sweet period where everyone agrees not to repeat the recent horrors. Of course, we're stupid, fickle human beings with poor memories and a great gift for self-destruction. Although, who knows? Maybe this time we will learn." 

from Pinterest.co.kr

I would like to think this time we will learn, though the track record is not great. I remember that sweet moment after the terrible horror of 9/11. I remember people being nice to each other, patient on the highways, going back to church and praying, rallying around brothers and sisters. Of course, it did not last, except for the kind of "never forget" prejudice that has spawned untold atrocities and still incites death and destruction. For Christians, forgiveness is a kind of forgetting and our desire is never to judge whole groups of people by their worst examples. THAT is part of what I wish we could learn, and remember, and keep before us...

What else would I like for us to learn? That we really do need each other. We are not islands. Either as individuals, ethnic groups, or nations. We cannot wall ourselves off from others, nor should we want to. If, on the negative side, the virus proves how interrelated and fragile (and global!) we are--where strangers can infect strangers and no barrier is effective against sickness and death (all the neighborhoods in Pompeii, rich and poor were equally destroyed)--on the positive side, the ways we cooperate prove the same thing to the positive. We prove, together, how strong we can be. Strangers can help strangers; nothing can stop the love and sharing and service once it begins to spread.

I also hope we learn again how crucial church is. Not just going to church, but faith, hope and love. Being a part of the Body of Christ, where together we learn who our neighbor is and why we love them (because Jesus loved and died for all of us; no one of us, but all of us are his favorites). 

Where we are given both the reason and the example to "make ourselves useful," as our moms used to say when we were bored. If there are many who will gladly self-quarantine and safe-harbor in order to stay away from people (and certainly we each and all need to be responsible, for ourselves and others), there are also people who are so much self-quarantined but cut-off from support or help; many who are not only safe-harboring, but dangerously isolated. It is our duty and joy to learn from Jesus, and in this wilderness determine how to come away from our willful isolation in order to make ourselves useful to our neighbors by loving them for God's sake. 

We may learn more yet about what the Church will be or look like after COVID-19. I will speak to that more tomorrow. 

Yes, we have been stopped in our tracks, as it were. But Jesus calls us to follow him to the other side where even now we can prove to be his disciples.