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February 21, 2021One should not read today’s first reading and miss the parallels to what we are living now in the Coronavirus Pandemic. But it’s a little scary to go there because God seems to have forgotten the rainbow vow not to bring such a calamity upon the earth again. Yet, here we are, cowering in our homes and behind masks, floating in our own little ark of social distancing, dealing with yet another natural catastrophe beyond our control. COVID reminds us yet again that no matter where we live in the world, we are never really free of worry from threats to our very existence.
According to Pew Research, there is an uptick in the number of people who say they have become more religious in response to the Pandemic, reversing a 15-year decline. Such declines in religiosity are often associated with the kind of unprecedented prosperity and increased security the world has known over this time, despite the recent recession and continuing regional wars. Research indicates the reason behind the current resurgence is that religion helps people cope with depression when existence is stressful or uncertain, whether the cause is natural (such as earthquakes, hurricanes, and, yes, floods or pandemics) or human made (such as war or such as the tyranny that led to John’s arrest mentioned briefly in today’s Gospel (Mk 1:14)). It reminds me of the saying, there’s no such thing as an atheist in a foxhole.
For Jesus, religion was more than a balm for his anxiety, pointedly illustrated in today’s brief Gospel. It was a moving, living force at the very foundation of his life, one that drove him to the desert where he would gain a laser focus on his mission having addressed all distractions and awakened to God’s searing love, a love he called good news that the desert clarified for him. It was what he would give his life to proclaiming. For the remnant of humanity on the ark, this clarity too was gained by the waters wiping away all distractions, all death-dealing options. God’s rainbow vow to them is not some pretty promise, but a covenantal relationship forged in the clarity brought about by the flood. So it is with Jesus in the desert. So it is what gives him the courage to continue the very mission that John had initiated and had been arrested for. Certainly not because it was comforting, but because the love of God and his love for God makes other distracting options unviable. Can this Lent be that clarifying time for us?