Optional Memorial of Saint Jane Frances de Chantal, religious

Lectionary: 416 

No sooner had these priestly bearers of the ark waded into the waters at the edge of the Jordan, which overflows all its banks during the entire season of the harvest, than the waters flowing from upstream halted, backing up in a solid mass for a very great distance indeed,

The Day will come, we certainly hope, when SARS-CoV-2 and all its variants from alpha through delta to omega will be finished! And done with! Amen! 

In the meanwhile, we work, wait, hope, and pray for its end. History will not end on that day, but we will move on to something else. And hopefully, we'll be wiser for the experience.  

Our first reading today recalls an important moment in the history of Israel. The second generation of escaped Hebrew slaves crossed the Jordan River into the Promised Land. Fording the river did not mark the end of their work, sacrifices, or trouble, but it was a new beginning. 

As the Divine Author describes it, the Jordan behaved as the Red Sea had. The waters parted and the people crossed dry shod. No one should get too caught up in a fruitless discussion about whether God should do such a thing, or how it might have happened naturally without divine interference, or whether it happened at all. That speculation misses the point, which is, "By the Lord has this been done and it is marvelous in our sight."

We should notice the liturgical resonance. This was not just a mob of people walking; it was a procession of God's holy people. They were doing precisely what we do in our churches. The celebrant of Mass usually formally enters the Church with his ministers; on bigger occasions all the able bodied enter the church in procession. On other occasions we march around the interior. 

Doing that we remember the Hebrew escape from Egypt, their entrance into Israel, their annual pilgrimages to Jerusalem, Jesus's entrance into the same city with his disciples, and that yet-to-come Day when we enter Eternity and the Bliss of Heaven. 

Nor can we recall those first processions without noticing the water, which is the water of Baptism. Our life together begins with Baptism. That too is a Mighty Work of God and wonderful in our sight. 

The end of the pandemic and the beginning of our new life should also be marked by a huge procession as millions return to Church. It should be a much larger stream of people than that which trickled out of church. If the epidemic and our courageous response to it does not teach us to trust in God and one another, and to care more compassionately, for one another it will be all for naught. But if it leads us to the Lord, as every moment of our lives should, it will be a true and living sacrifice.