Fig Tree - Editorial2

Editorial

We need the 'time out' and healing of Sabbath

An observation from satellite views is the dramatic reduction in carbon emissions as transportation, production, shipments, work places, schools and entertainment/sports have shut down. It's giving everyone a chance to slow down, and giving Mother Nature a chance to heal.

Perhaps there always has been a reason to keep the Sabbath as a day of rest each week. Not only is it a chance for people to breathe, relax, heal and build relationships, but also it is a chance to step out of the frenzy of profit-making, competition, shopping, sports contests, entertainment, travel, slavery and overworking.

What if we took a Sabbath—encapsulating many faiths' traditions—from Friday sundown to Sunday at midnight each week—imagine what impact that might have on reducing global warming, let alone our health.

Do we need to be so busy, busy working, shopping and being out and about all weekend? We have been told to pause, to take a day of rest. Our days of rest are giving time for nature to heal a bit.

What other insights about our frenzied lives will we gain from this time of disruption?

We need to be contagious with love, healing and help, as U.S. Episcopal Presiding Bishop Michael Curry said. "Love is not self-centered, selfish, but seeking the good and welfare of others. The love is so great that we would give up our life for friends. We will fight our contagion by the disciplined labor of love, working through medical folks and each of us who can help and heal, voluntarily worshiping God online if that will help someone else," he said.

What will happen as season tickets on subways, to concerts or soccer games become useless? As Mass is canceled?

"We are asked to think not for selves but for community. The virus is bringing a new awareness that we all share the same physical space. We live here together—different ethnicities and races. God's love is in our lived love for each other. Love can heal, lift up, liberate," Bishop Curry said.

What if, like the Sabbath, we take this time out as holy time, time to pray, time to think about how the world might every day and every time be different—more just, loving, connected, understanding, respectful, prayerful, joyful, peaceful, caring, healthy, equal, livable for all?