'People signs' and the global coronavirus pandemic
Several years ago, my wife, our grandchildren and I were in the car going out to eat when our youngest grandson, Julius, exclaimed, “Look Papa, there’s a place with people signs.”
Brenda and I looked at one another and whispered, “People signs?”
After we had eaten and were back in the car, I asked Julius to tell me when we were getting close to the place with “people signs.”
It wasn’t long before he said, “There it is. The place with people signs.” He was pointing to a cemetery.
As the number of deaths from covid-19 continues to rise to nearly 200,000 Americans, I am struggling to try and add some dignity to each death that has occurred. Each person that has died lived a life with all kinds of twists and turns that enriched in large and small ways what we call the American experience. Each of the 200,000 people that have died will be missed and we are diminished by their deaths. I tried to visualize a cemetery devoted only to covid-19 victims filled with each individual’s “people sign.”
Recently, I had an opportunity to officiate a funeral at the National Cemetery in Fayetteville. I have officiated at funerals in several other National Cemeteries, including Arlington National Cemetery for the burial of my oldest brother. To date, over 400,000 men, women and children are buried there in long orderly rows of people signs designating a person who served our country during times of military conflicts. Arlington officially opened in 1864.
During my thirty-plus years as a parish priest, I have officiated at many funerals. When preparing for a service, I ask the family to help choose the Biblical readings from the list in The Book of Common Prayer. The most popular choice is Romans 8:38-39, “For I am convinced that there is nothing in death or life …nothing in all creation that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Like you, I have experienced, sometimes in sudden tragic ways, the death of a family member or a friend. I too have felt off-balance and alone. Life has again taken my breath away but, through the tears, I know that I am loved by God.
I am also encouraged by the poetry of William Wordsworth who wrote “Ode to Intimations of Immortality.” In the tenth section of the poem, he offers solemn comfort:
“Which having been must ever be;
In the soothing thoughts that spring
Out of human suffering, In the faith that looks through death.”
The number of survivors that are grieving during this pandemic is enormous. Even those that have been infected by this virus and recovered are staggering with the weight of new evidence that they can be infected again.
What I believe we cannot do is to give up or give in to politically expedient “solutions” and wait until there are scientifically tested solutions. There are proven methods that the scientists have said will help us, but it really does require all hands-on deck versus an “I’ll do it my way” approach. As Dr. Robert Redfield of the CDC testified before Congress: wear a mask, practice safe distancing, avoid large crowds, and wash your hands frequently.
We are called to follow some practical rules and follow the most important spiritual rule: Believe in the love of God. Love God and love your neighbors, and let’s keep our eyes off the TV and digital screens and look to the one true God, who will lead us to the other side of these most difficult circumstances.