This is the first night of Passover 2020. My recollections of Catholic school education on the Old Testament are surprisingly vivid. I have to think St. Louise de Marillac School invested heavily in Old Testament film strips, because that was a favorite of teachers and students alike.
I was fascinated and terrified by the Bible verses depicting the struggles of the Israelites against their Egyptian slave masters. Plagues. Ten of them! They were included on quizzes. Name the ten plagues God beset on the Egyptians – in order! Hang on while I search the web, cause I’m only recalling locusts, hail, frogs and the lamb’s blood on the door. Thank you Wikipedia.
All these years later, I am not surprised that this graphic Biblical content stuck with me and may have overshadowed the gentler parables and even major miracles I would learn about later.
But this year, this Passover, I think about people like me, people all over the globe, huddled in their homes. We’ve learned of a great, powerful threat to our health, our safety, our families, our very future and we sit and wait and pray for it to pass us over.
We didn’t learn of the Seder meal in all those years at St. Louise, and that is a pity, since it is the prayerful, holy ritual that I’d rather focus on. So tonight, though we can’t all gather, we can remember that there was a threat to an ancient people, a Passover and an Exodus.
Thanks for this, it was an important and influential part of my life. While today I’m further away from my faith than I’ve ever been, those early years gave me a wonderful foundation which I still lean upon. I came to a mutual understanding, assuming he was listening, with my early teachings a few years ago that I’ll accept certain things as facts, and not argue them, fore what does it matter, they can’t be proven, so give it up. For example, the virgin birth. It can’t be proven, can we agree on that? It’s all faith base. Regardless, how does that make a difference in how I treat my fellow man? So I gave in to the fight, and now say; what else you got? Back to Faith, The Devils Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce defines it as, “Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel.” I’m good with that.