Corona May Kill Kings, But Never Defeats A St Anthony

“A Christmas Tree” is a novella by Julie Salamon (illustrated by Jill Weber) recounting how a Norway Spruce named “Tree” taught an orphan girl to believe in herself & suggests inanimate objects can have a soul, too.

Fortuitously landing in a convent & raised by nuns, the little girl becomes one herself, choosing the name of “Anthony” upon taking her vows. She wanted to honor the Saint of Lost Causes. After being advised to pray to him one day, you see, Sister Anthony believed he helped her miraculously find a lost satchel containing tidbits she had collected from nature that were the only link left to her beloved departed parents & senselessly tough childhood. Could we be learning a similar lesson today from the seeming hopeless destruction wrought by the Coronavirus? We ask how can God let such evil spread? How could any “good” come of it? Learning to “trust” may be one key, Salamon’s story suggests.

With the help of Tree (& the “teachings” of her convent colleagues) Sister Anthony went on to help countless children not only learn how to overcome similar life woes, but to revel in all the good about them in nature. She probably came to realize, too, that the birth as well as death of Jesus Himself were grim tales, yet they also continue to teach us much about good (as well as bad) things all around EVERYONE to this day…if only we trust the God-given “eyes” we have to see and learn from them. Something about the way God talks to us via one another if not nature occurred to me as I read Sister Anthony’s story unfold. There are more lighted Christmas trees on display in my neighborhood than ever this year, perhaps as if to say in one voice, “The plague may kill us, but we’ll learn not to let it defeat us.”

Davd Soul