How To Make This Chaotic Time A Chance For “Pan-deepening”
Last Sunday, I was invited to offer an online reflection for the lay associates (Oblates) of Maryland’s Emmanuel Monastery. Many related how they are processing both the pandemic and our country’s current social turmoil as a time of “pan-deepening.”
One Oblate observed that our country needs now more than ever the promises Oblates make: to be good listeners, to nurture community, foster consensus, offer hospitality, and live simply. In short, to be what she called “beacons for our society.”
Another said she has learned to take nothing for granted.
Today the Christian church celebrates Pentecost when the early followers of Jesus received the grace of the Holy Spirit. They emerged from their hiding, fear and anxiety to boldly proclaim their beliefs to a broken society.
We too have been anxiously living behind locked doors. This week’s angry protests — justified as they might be — reveal a social fabric that is fraying.
“I do not understand the mystery of grace — only that it meets us where we are and does not leave us where it found us,” Anne Lamott has written.
The astute observations of the Emmanuel Monastery Oblates prompted me to ask others from various faith traditions to reflect on what this time has meant to them.
How have their attitudes and interior life changed? Where have they encountered grace?
I offer their responses in the hope they will help you distill your own insights into this historic time.
Susan Baller Shepard is a Presbyterian minister, poet and essayist. Her lesson springs from a weed in her garden called Creeping Charlie.
“Creeping Charlie is insidious, it sneaks up and under plants, then pulls them down, or chokes them out,” Sue writes.
“It makes me think of a quote that stings from the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who said, “Man’s inhumanity to man is not only perpetrated by the vitriolic actions of those who are bad. It is also perpetrated by the vitiating inaction of those who are good.”
The pandemic, which has hit communities of color hardest — as well as the recent deaths of African Americans at the hands of white officers — underscores the social as well as physical disease plaguing our society.
“Racism … is like a weed that grows along an understory. It is alive and well and thriving still in this pandemic,” Sue observes. “What I’m learning yet again is how much I have to learn.”
Lama Tsering Ngodup Yodsampa is a Tibetan teacher of meditation and a chaplain at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.
Lama Tsering calls our current crisis a “ripening of collective negative Karma cultivated by excessive indulging of pride, jealousy, desire, greed and hatred.”
The antidote, he says, is “mindfully living each day with pure mind, kind thoughts, and action (done) with loving kindness.”
Eventually, this crisis too shall pass, Lama Tsering points out. There is no point in being angry, fearful or resentful — natural as those reactions might be.
“Working with my inner self-evolution to (arrive at) the complete state of awaking is the only thing that can be obtained,” he adds. “The rest is merely transitory in nature.”
Lisa Breger is an award-winning poet and writing instructor from Wayland, MA. On her daily walks through a patch of woods to a nearby lake, she has observed the “healing” taking place in the environment.
“Now that we the people have put on the breaks on our fast and furious workaday world, the smog is lifting, the skies are clearing, the trees are happier, and we seem to be in a more balanced cohabitation with the animals.”
She adds, “The pandemic has caused us to pay more attention to food insecurity … It’s also made us minimize waste through more careful meal planning. What started as a fear of going to the grocery store has grown into an effort to do more for those who don’t have the means to buy food ...
As Anne Lamott says about the jungle (which might as well be the pandemic), ‘Stay calm and share your bananas.’”
Rick Tindall is a retired Presbyterian pastor, proud grandfather, and part of the Illinois Grand Prairie Master Naturalists, a group that cares for the Illinois’ nature sites.
“Over 100,000 deaths already in the news is a constant reminder that every day is a gift from God,” Rick says.
“I’ve learned more about uncertainty. I might be the next one to experience COVID-19. I might unknowingly pass on the virus. I try my hardest not only to protect my own health, but just as importantly, to protect the health of everyone I meet.”
Rick hopes one legacy of this time will be for all of us to recognize “how valuable a sense of community is for living a meaningful life.”
The country might seem broken at the moment, unable to come together to solve the pandemic and our systemic problems of racism, inequality in health care, and unemployment. Still, people like Sue, Lama Tsering, Lisa and Rick refuse to despair.
“We need each other now more than ever,” Rick says.
How can we become better “beacons to society,” as my Oblate friend from Emmanuel Monastery put it?
How can we beat back fear with acts of “loving kindness,” as Lama Tsering suggests?
How can we, like the early followers of Christ on Pentecost, emerge from our locked rooms stronger, more compassionate, and determinded to change what ails our country and our world?
