I know. If you’re like me, you’re already tired of hearing about the subject. However, even after factoring in media hysteria and political posturing, this virus has the potential to cause a great deal of inconvenience and a great deal of genuine suffering.
But it’s not like we Orthodox haven’t been through this before—and you don’t have to go all the way back to the great plagues of the Middle Ages for that kind of experience. In fact, just over a century ago, 675,000 people in this country—this country—died from what was then called the Spanish Flu.
One of the people who perished in that epidemic was Father Nicolai Yanney, the first priest ordained by St Raphael of Brooklyn, and the first priest to serve in our diocese. Father Nicolai was originally from Lebanon, but he immigrated to this country and settled in Nebraska. He was ordained to the priesthood by St Raphael in 1904, and, fourteen years later, he died while ministering to the congregation of St George, Kearney, during the flu epidemic. Because of his heroic service, Father Nicolai will likely be glorified at some point in the next few decades.
So this is not a new experience for Holy Orthodoxy. To be sure, our fervent prayer is that the Coronavirus will be nothing at all like the Spanish Flu, but, as we prepare for whatever the future holds, there are some simple and practical things we can do.
Use Common Sense in Regards to the Services
We’re not going to be canceling services, but, if the situation becomes more serious, folks who are already in ill-health or women who are pregnant or families who have very young children need to think carefully about whether they should participate in a liturgy that’s likely to be really crowded. Since we have now begun Great Lent, there will be plenty of services each week where only a few people are present, so it’s not as if there won’t still be plenty of opportunities to worship—we just need to be wise and take advantage of the most suitable opportunities.
Develop Some New Good Habits
Starting this coming Sunday, in the narthex, there will be hand sanitizer, and it would be a really smart if all of us would use that hand sanitizer when we first enter the building. According to the CDC, what would be even better is if we all stopped off in the restroom and washed our hands for twenty seconds with soap and hot water (if you need to know how long twenty seconds is, hum ‘Happy Birthday’ twice). However, these activities are not an ominous sign of impending doom; as a matter of fact, washing our hands will actually be the recovery of a very ancient tradition. Because, in the early centuries of the faith, Orthodox temples of any size always had a courtyard with a fountain, and parishioners were expecting to actually use the fountain to wash up before they entered the temple. Perhaps when it’s time to build our temple, we will be able to install a fountain, but there’s no reason at all why we can’t go ahead and start washing up right now. The clergy actually already do that when they are preparing for the Divine Liturgy; there’s a special prayer they offer as they wash their hands with water, but, starting this coming Sunday, the deacons and I will also be using the hand sanitizer in the narthex along with soap and hot water.
Be More Intentional About Those Older Good Habits
You know, cover your mouth when you sneeze or cough. If you have a fever or you just don’t feel well, stay home; you don’t get any ascetic points for showing up at services when you’re sick; you just put other folks at risk.
All of us already wash our hands before we eat, but that’s something we also need to start doing before we go through the line at Fellowship Hour. We also need to allow the Fellowship Hour Teams to serve us when we are in the line; they will be wearing gloves and using tongs, and, yes, probably, it will slow the line down a bit, but we are all going to be healthier if fewer people touch the food that we eat.
Don’t Be Afraid
Some people always kind of wonder about the safety of the Holy Eucharist, and, in the midst of a looming health crisis, that wondering can easily turn to panic. But, when it comes to the Holy Gifts, there is really only one thing we need to remember: Either they are or they aren’t the Body and Blood of Christ Jesus. And we believe that they are—in fact, each and every week, right before we approach the chalice, we proclaim: “I believe that this is truly Thy Most Precious Body and that this is truly Thine Own Precious Blood.” That means we are not going to get sick as a result of our participation in this Holy Mystery.
We don’t know what will happen over the next few months. But Christ Jesus does; in fact, He’s already there. So we can move towards that future with peace and courage and hope.
an unworthy priest
aidan