Scripture came alive in the quiet retreat

June 13, 2020

Soaring above a global crisis

The world changed in March – and one group uniquely affected was the high school graduating Class of 2020. In a moment’s notice, it seemed, Catholic high schools closed their physical campuses as a precaution against the spread of the coronavirus, sending thousands of students home to begin online classes.

For the seniors of the 22 Catholic high schools in the Archdiocese of New Orleans, the final two months of their high school lives were turned upside down. But the amazing thing is how God worked quietly through this crisis. Over the next several pages, see how the Quarantine Class of 2020 used the support of their parents, teachers and faith to shine despite difficult circumstances. The Clarion Herald asked seniors to reflect on how they used their time of quarantine and handled the challenges of a global pandemic during one of the milestone moments of their lives.

Get ready to be inspired!

Eric Bui, Archbishop Shaw High

In March, the news of Louisiana’s statewide closure of schools came to us in Ms. Gardner’s publications class even before the intercom message came announcing our impromptu school wide assembly.

We were in shutdown mode, and the very place where my classmates and I sought out fellowship most was to be avoided for the foreseeable future.

From the standpoint of physical health, this was obviously a very good move, but that was not the initial thought of any student, especially not a graduating senior with two months left with his dearly beloved cohorts and teachers.

Thus, the challenge of distance learning became perhaps the most uniquely infuriating experiences of my high school career. It was not the medium that made distance learning so vexing; it was the notion that it felt over when it was not.

During this time in quarantine, I wondered whether isolation would be good for my psychological health in the interest of protecting my physical health. But most importantly, I wondered how it would affect my spiritual health.

In this very odd state of forced separation from others, it was difficult to not question why God would allow something like this to happen in the first place. But in time, isolation brought out the best in areas of my life where I assumed the worst.

This quarantine was forced isolation, but it became a period of unintended introspection, something I needed whether I wanted to acknowledge it or not. It started to become less of a forced isolation. As Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop Robert Barron put it, the quarantine should be less isolation and more “purposefully sitting alone in a room” with God.

The time became almost a strange spiritual retreat where you’re the participant and coordinator. But in this way, the Bible springs to life through reflection and meditation. Quietly being able to discern thoughts, picking out passages from Scripture and telling the Lord how you truly feel are much easier to do without the reproach of the world around you.

As I now lay in bed thinking about nothingness, I imagined this was what St. Thomas Aquinas felt when he composed the “Summa” or how Pope John Paul II marveled in silence as he prayed the rosary. In these quiet times, I have learned to ask myself how I could respond to the grace in front of me, my family and loved ones, rather than question why things are the way they are.

When I go outside, the sun still hurts my eyes. It feels like a whole new world. I will never get those two months of my senior year back. But if any Catholic theologian is right, perhaps some of our deepest issues can be solved when we focus our eyes on the Lord without distraction.

The future will be brighter once we return to normalcy, as it is God’s inexplicably strange providence that will undoubtedly keep us aflame.