3MS (3-Minute-Stories), Maria Fischer •
Yes, I know that the Easter season is over. But when we were allowed to sing again today at Sunday Mass for the first time in eight months, I was somehow firmly convinced that the organist would have to start singing this old Easter song right away. Resound loud, triumphant song. The Savior is risen. The church is alive, for she sings. —
Silent night hummed very softly at Christmas mass. Soul, your Savior is free from the bonds only sung along in the heart to the solo of the organist. The Holy Spirit came as quietly as never before.
Now we sing all the verses of each song and no one looks at the clock. My fellow Christians standing at a due distance of 1.5 meters are smiling under their masks, some are bobbing on their feet, and someone just starts clapping at the end of the Gloria.
Because of the pandemic (SARS-CoV-2 viruses in aerosols, aerogenic transmission of Covid-19, higher viral load when singing than when coughing – what we learned in these long months) we did not sing in the church services anymore. For months, Christmas, Easter, Pentecost.
And somehow, on its simultaneous journey through this long dark period of its crises, our Church had stopped singing.
A few tears run down the face of an old lady. The couple in front of me clasp hands. And another verse.
The crisis of the Church is not over because we sang “Glory to God on Earth” so loudly today.
Resounding loudly, a song of triumph… Not because of some clever crisis management strategy. But because someone sang the Alleluia, when everything seemed to be over: The Savior is risen, defeated lies death in bands, which his God-power conquered. The salvation of the world is really here! Alleluia.
On the way home, I meet the couple holding hands, and I almost say in passing: Happy Easter.
Photo: Pilgrimage “Madre, ven”
Original: German, 28.06.2021. Translation: Lindsay Burger, Ohio, USA
