Anastasis, noun.

1. Recovery from a debilitating condition

2. Rebirth

3. Resurrection

All three are on my mind this Holy Saturday.

This virus has ravaged the world and pinned us to cardboard like moths, even those who don’t have the disease. I can hardly bear to read the stories from actual sufferers. All I’m asked to do is stay home, and I feel the claustrophia of it even though no stone is rolled against my door.

And yet, it’s been beautiful to see so many rise up. You know the stories. You’ve seen the songs from balconies, the kitchens feeding those without homes, the notes on doors telling neighbors, “Just call me. I’ll get whatever you need.” I feel a companionship with the entire planet.

This has been an unusual holy week; sometimes I’ve forgotten what day it is. Palm Sunday snuck up on me like humility, which, of course, it is.

Yet somehow I so deeply relate. Surrounded on all sides by fear and suffering and death, I long for the resurrection of “regular life.” Tomorrow will unlikely be the miraculous end of COVID-19, but the resurrection joy I await is so palpably symbolic.

Easter has snuck up on me like hope, which, of course, it is.

#blog #easter #eastersunday #holysaturday #easterandcovid #covideaster