Lenten Daily Reflection 2020-03-20
Psalm 91
1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High, *
abides under the shadow of the Almighty.
2 He shall say to the Lord,
"You are my refuge and my stronghold, *
my God in whom I put my trust."
3 He shall deliver you from the snare of the hunter *
and from the deadly pestilence.
4 He shall cover you with his pinions,
and you shall find refuge under his wings; *
his faithfulness shall be a shield and buckler.
5 You shall not be afraid of any terror by night, *
nor of the arrow that flies by day;
6 Of the plague that stalks in the darkness, *
nor of the sickness that lays waste at mid-day.
7 A thousand shall fall at your side
and ten thousand at your right hand, *
but it shall not come near you.
8 Your eyes have only to behold *
to see the reward of the wicked.
9 Because you have made the Lord your refuge, *
and the Most High your habitation,
10 There shall no evil happen to you, *
neither shall any plague come near your dwelling.
11 For he shall give his angels charge over you, *
to keep you in all your ways.
12 They shall bear you in their hands, *
lest you dash your foot against a stone.
13 You shall tread upon the lion and adder; *
you shall trample the young lion and the serpent under your feet.
14 Because he is bound to me in love,
therefore will I deliver him; *
I will protect him, because he knows my Name.
15 He shall call upon me, and I will answer him; *
I am with him in trouble;
I will rescue him and bring him to honor.
16 With long life will I satisfy him, *
and show him my salvation.
I had just spent a week hunkering down and making contingency plans to work from home before the CUNY Chancellor said that everyone was going online because of the Corona Virus. At first it was faculty and students; I was neither, I am considered staff. However, because I had upper respiratory stuff going on, I wanted to make contingency plans to work from home; my Assistant Director and I met and we began to think about ways to go virtual with the Honors Program I run at Hunter College. I was not nervous about what was going on, I was only trying to be proactive because I knew that things could change rather fast, and I have many responsible hats I have to wear.
On Saturday when I first read Psalm 91, I froze. My first response was OMG! God this is happening now!!! I started to feel anxiety since the Mothers had just announced that we would have church online. What? Church online? Knowing that I would not be singing along with the choir, or shaking hands during ‘the peace’, or even the special Lord’s Prayer when we hold hands with each other, in those beautiful hand-held lines, almost like a bridge to heaven-singing the Lord’s Prayer while looking at the altar and that big majestic stained glass window of Jesus (a moment I always feel God’s presence). I have to admit, I felt a moment of panic.
I re-read Psalm 91 on Sunday after online church (which was not so bad, I thought) and realized that verses 1-6 talked about God giving us refuge and delivering us from “the snare of the hunter and from the deadly pestilence.” As the weekend passed, I knew that the virus was the snare of the hunter. The more I heard the news, the more I felt compelled to hear it, and the more I would focus on God, prayer and trust in God. I could not control what was happening, but I could do my best to stay home and look after my parents, take care of myself and my partner and make sure that everyone who lived in my home had the resources they needed to work from home. I have high wireless connectivity in my building, and my tenants have a guest pass. One of my tenants set up a google calendar to schedule all of us, so as to not overtax the internet. How cool? This would not have happened otherwise, but we learned to figure things out.
Verses 7-14 mirrors what is going on currently. Yes, there is a virus, and many will succumb to the virus. However, the more you grow in God’s love and share with your community and help each other out, the more things will get better sooner and then we can begin to win the fight with the “snare of the hunter.” I am opting not to listen to the news obsessively, except to keep informed every day, but I do not want to panic. Let’s spend our efforts in “self-study,” and looking within. What is it about what we are doing now, or our eating or our communicating, that we can work on a little harder to change for the better, to serve in God’s calling? Yoga rules from the Eight Limbs of Yoga call it Svadhyaya, which means to intentionally find self-awareness in all our activities and efforts, even to the point of welcoming and accepting limitations. By practicing svadhyaya, the desire of worldly objects diminishes and taste for spirituality increases.
I look forward to seeing you all in-person soon. In the meantime, let's practice self-study. God will take care of us. Now we owe it to him, to give back and help others escape from “the snare of the hunter and from the deadly pestilence”.