This Year’s Holy Season May Be One Of The Most Important In Recent History

By Raoul Dennis

“It’s biblical,” the old folks would say to us when they spoke of something that was out of reach but part of a larger plan that we needed to go along with.

So, we went with it.

It seemed pretty ominous and unclear but we figured it is what it is and we went back to the business of being children. Besides, if the old folks weren’t shook by it, why should we be?

These were matters predicated upon trials and tribulations that either occurred or were set in motion thousands of years ago. For Jews, Christians and Muslims, this week represents one of the holiest moments of the year, harkening back to those days centuries ago when humanity was struggling to find its place in the universe – and how we should treat each other.

We were supposed to learn from those times. We were supposed to get the lessons from the Resurrection of Christ and the message of Passover and the spirit of Ramadan.

But here we are in 2020 in the middle of a global pandemic wherein all our leaders say the peak in the numbers of deaths will come this week and, specifically on Easter Sunday.

“There will be a lot of death,” Mr. Trump said at the White House, where he and other American officials depicted some parts of the United States as climbing toward the peaks of their crises, while warning that new hot spots were emerging in Pennsylvania, Colorado and Washington, D.C.” as reported in The New York Times, April 4.

“The next two weeks are extraordinarily important,” said Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House’s Coronavirus response coordinator in the article. “This is the moment to not be going to the grocery store, to not go to the pharmacy, but doing everything you can to keep your family and your friends safe and that means everybody doing the six-feet distancing, washing their hands.”

With the novel coronavirus spreading and lockdowns expanding, and two of the Judeo-Christian world’s major holidays coming up, faith leaders are hoping to preserve a sense of community.

Many churches and synagogues will stream Easter and Passover services live. Family gatherings will be held by video conference using FaceTime, StreamSpot and Zoom.

The days and the weeks ahead will indeed be among the most painful in the nation’s history as we endure this virus and we are powerless to even come together to mourn our lost loved ones. It will push us to difficult places as we are asked to shelter in place, avoid the most basic of human contact (touch) and, for many, remain isolated and alone.

Faith and this holy season may be the best thing we have. It gives us something to hold onto. Something larger, wiser, benevolent and even hopeful.

“As one of my teachers observed, we can’t meet physically, but we will gather," said Rabbi Andrew Busch of Baltimore Hebrew Congregation, to The Baltimore Sun, April 1.

“We’ll be with each other digitally, not physically. But we will very much be with each other.”

Passover is the period during which Jews commemorate their forebears’ deliverance from slavery in Egypt more than 3,300 years ago. The name invokes a night described in the book of Exodus when God passed over the homes of the Israelites while inflicting a deadly plague on their tormentors.

This history of hope and scripture wasn’t lost on enslaved African Americans who were forced to practice religion in secret because they were not allowed to gather (for fear in many cases that they were plotting against their enslavers).

According to VOX (April 8), it’s part of the origins of the AME church — when enslaved black people met in secret to practice their religion. “We are very much still leaning into the history of the spiritual, the history of our faith.”

Biblical stories of Exodus were excluded from the teachings then to prevent the enslaved from harboring ideas of escape from bondage.

They each come down to hope through love and faith in the face of the worst kinds of tyranny, oppression, famine, blight and yes, disaster and disease. They tell us that we will come through it – as hard and as horrible as it may be, and even when oppressive forces seem bent on destroying us – we will overcome it. We who are of faith will stand over that which would kill us.

Busch “also shared a public service announcement urging Jews not to gather in groups. ‘We outlasted and overcame Pharaoh, we’ll outlast and overcome this,’” he said.

The old folks were always right. It’s in the scripture.