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March 17, 2024In these days, we mark the fourth anniversary of the virtual global shutdown caused by the COVID-19 infection, remembering in prayer all those who lost their lives or who were traumatized during that time. The passage of years, the success of fighting if not overcoming the disease, and our readings today encourage us to reflect on a very different kind of infectiousness. Is there anything more infectious than the laughter of a child? It is so free and spontaneous and true. One can be sitting anxiously in the midst of a crowded and busy and discordant airport; but when you hear the laughter of a child nearby, your ears prick up and something inside resonates. Suddenly, you find yourself delighting not in what made the child laugh, but in the pure joy the laughter of the innocent evokes. And you can’t help but chuckle with the child.
Now deep into Lent, today’s readings point us to the wonder of the Easter promise. Jesus could not resist this infectious Spirit nor stand for it to be rationed out only to those who passed some sort of religious litmus test devised by those who would quarantine it, even to the point of killing its Messenger of Good News, self-righteously desiring to reserve it only to themselves and those like themselves.
As Spring laughs itself forward through the return of color in the surrounding world, what parts of my life have been exposed during this time of Lenten reflection and inspection to be in need of the life-giving renewal that only the eternally creative God of life in whom Jesus places all his trust can bring about? What can I do to expose myself to that infectious, transformative power?
[click here for the readings of the day]
