Pandemic as Honeymoon

What is a honeymoon? A time when we "social-distance" ourselves from everyone and everything, "quaranteen ourselves,"  to be alone with the Beloved: to be with her, gaze on her beauty, listen to her, tell her of her loveliness; to touch, hold, kiss and become one with each other; and forget about everyone else. I recall our honeymoon, almost 50 years ago:  January in frigid Quebec, we were not merely warm, but radiant and at times flaming in our mutual delight, desire and passion. 

God brought His bride, Israel, into the desert for 40 years for their honeymoon, their time of intimacy together. It was not as pleasant as my time in Quebec. It was the desert heat, without the onions and garlic of Egypt, without any of the normal supports of life, insecure and uprooted. It was the time in which the Bride Israel surrendered herself in trust to the Bridegroom.

This time of pandemic is just such a time of honeymoon for us with our Lord Jesus. We have been stripped of all our routines, pleasures, certainties. We are being invited to trust only in Him. We are being seduced into intimacy with Him alone. Even the Church has been closed to us! The bishops and the Vatican have proven to be not trustworthy. Our two political parties are both morally corrupt to the very core. I intentionally watched not a second of either party's convention as I consider both to be toxic, deceitful, vile. I cherish my own intellect, heart, and soul too much to ingest such filth. I cannot imagine how any Catholic with some intelligence and a moral compass could vote for either of these two. It is a clear, moral imperative for us to "distance" ourselves from the DNC and the RNC both, although the former is far worse.

Ralph Martin has retrieved a charismatic prophesy delivered 44 years ago, in 1976, by the marvelous Father Michael Scanlon  of Steuvenville University. It foretold of societal collapse, closed Churches, and lawlessness, but the point was an invitation to closeness with God: "Are you willing to know no law, no government, not protection for you except that which I myself will give you? ...Are you willing see no country, no country to call your own except those I give you as my body? Are you willing to base your life only on me and not on any particular structure?"

Martin sees in this prophesy a clear call for us to relinquish our trust in so many false securities and lean trustingly into intimacy with our Lord. Along with this, we are called to lean into each other, in faith, hope and love. In this is great joy, safety, confidence and trust. The future is very uncertain. The economy, science, politics...all are unreliable. 

But drawing close to God and to each other in Him...we overflow with Hope and Joy and Confidence!