As we have been hearing over and over again on social media, these are unprecedented times. We are all trying to cope with and avoid a very dangerous Coronavirus – Covid-19.  I know that in my 72 years of life, this is the first time that all the liturgies of Holy Week will be celebrated without the presence of parishioners sitting in the pews.  I know that I have been contemplating what that was going to be like, not only for the liturgies that will take place in the Church, but also for me as I am prevented from personally attending,  especially the venerating of the Cross on Good Friday.  I am sure that it will be an eye opening, new faith experience for me and I dare say all the faithful, not to mention for the priests that will be presiding over these Holy Week liturgies in the silence of empty churches.

Will I be able to feel the emotional experience, the spiritual energy that comes from responses of the whole congregation that is present in the Church?  Will I be moved without the music as it flows out from the choir, singing the responses, chanting the verses of the psalms and the glorious alleluia on Holy Thursday, to the songs of suffering on Good Friday and the exaltation of the Resurrection on Easter Sunday Morning?  The short answer is no, at least not in the way that I just talked about above.  That, however, does not mean that I can’t experience the emotional energy of Holy Week in other ways.

Yes, we will be able to livestream the triduum from the comfort of our own home, but that is the question.  Will I be able to feel the passion and suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross on Good Friday? I have pondered these thoughts and reflected on their impact.  Then the Holy Spirit put into my thoughts a verse from Matthew’s Gospel:  “Jesus looked at them and said, ‘for human beings this is impossible, but for God all things are possible’.” (Mt 19:26) With God, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, I can feel the emotional energy; I can feel the passion and suffering of Jesus and the joy of His resurrection.  It will be a different experience but that doesn’t mean that it won’t be a meaningful experience.

To help me prepare for the “new normal” as is often repeated, the Holy Spirit pointed me to a couple of resources.  From Catholic Answers Daily I came across an article by Fr. Hugh Barbour, O. Praem on “Mary’s Plan for Your Best Easter Ever.”  The article began by recalling the collect for the Mass this coming Friday in the Fifth Week of Lent.  “O, God, who in this season give your Church the grace to imitate devoutly the Blessed Virgin Mary in contemplating the Passion of Christ, grant, we pray, through her intercession, that we may cling more firmly each day to your Only Begotten Son and come at last to the fullness of his grace.” Fr. Barbour goes on to predict: “Mary will see to it that this is going to be the best Holy Week and Easter of your life.”

Fr. Barbour speaks of how Mary will intercede on our behalf and by her intercession we “will ‘cling more firmly’ to Jesus and receive the ‘fullness of His Grace’.”  We must join Mary in her contemplation of those events that would “pierce her heart with a sword.” (Lk 2:35)  We need to be with her at the foot of the Cross as she looks up at the torn and battered body of her Son and our Savior.  I encourage you to go to Catholic Answers Daily for March 30^th and read the full article by Fr. Barbour.

A second inspirational message came by way of Bishop Robert Barron in a reflection on todays (March 31) Gospel from JN 8:21-30.  Bishop Barron said: “We are meant to see on that cross not simply a violent display, but rather our own ugliness.  What brought Jesus to the cross? Stupidity, anger, mistrust, institutional injustice, betrayal of a friend, denial, unspeakable cruelty, scapegoating, fear, bad shepherding (Italicized words are my addition) etc.”  Bishop Barron suggests that all our dysfunction is revealed on that cross.  He states: “On the cross of Jesus, we meet our own sin. But we also meet the divine mercy that has taken that sin upon himself in order to swallow it up. We have found, in that cross, the way up.”  This will be my reflection on Good Friday, especially at the part in the liturgy where we are to venerate the cross.

I suggest that we all walk with Mary during these remaining days of Lent.  I suggest that as we become so very aware of what we have had, and will have to do without during our Stay At Home order that we bring that to the cross with us.  We need to feel Mary’s pain as she sees her Son beaten, spat upon, whipped, drug through the streets and finally nailed to the tree.  We need to feel that loss that she feels in heart as she watches her Son die before her on that cross, knowing that he was falsely accused , just like Susanna in yesterday’s reading, from the prophet Daniel.

As we recall the words of Paul in Romans 6:3-4: “Or are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in the newness of life.” I pray that your Holy week and mine will be filled with many spiritual blessings.