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In Whom Do We Trust?

Don’t forget the butter. That was our Dad’s advice when Easter Saturday rolled around and eggs were to be colored.

You’re probably wondering where butter comes into the picture of dyeing eggs in an assortment of mismatched coffee cups. Well, after you color your eggs and they are perfectly dry, you take a little softened butter on a paper towel and polish the eggs so that they would shine and the colors were even more vibrant.

Then the eggs would be placed in a special basket, often with some jelly beans tossed in for added color. Easter was always a special time for our family. It remains that way for our own families today. If we were taught anything, it was that Easter was about much more than our favorite candy melting in the baskets lined with fake grass. It was about faith.

This coronavirus plague we have faced for weeks has taught me, and hopefully others, something about where to place our faith and in whom do we trust.

We have had no choice but to trust in the information we get from medical experts and government officials. How much of the it is correct will be determined when this is all over.

I ran into a fellow parishioner the other day. Our large families grew up together, attended the same schools and knelt in the same pews of our parish. We agreed this would be an exceptionally trying time for our parents — now deceased. Not just because of the self-quarantines and social distancing — that would be hard to do with 10 plus kids in the house — but because of the shut-down of churches.

It was in the place of worship that we were united in one voice of song and prayer. It was where we felt safe in our faith and in our relationship with others. There is something real about the physical presence with one another that makes us stronger in our faith of choice. Not being able to be in our houses of worship this weekend is very unsettling.

Another friend pointed out that we have to dig deep to find the lesson in all of this. Are we being tested? I think so, in a lot of ways. Do those of us spared during this crisis need to rethink our lives? Absolutely. Have we had to sacrifice? Yes, we have. But isn’t that what Easter is all about — the end of the sacrifice? Let’s hope and pray it is so.

Heather Ziegler can be reached at hziegler@theintelligencer.net.

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