ENDEAVOR
Sonny Coloma
For the first time in three years — yes, three years, not just two years — Filipino Christians are able to witness and participate in Holy Week festivities in person. Many express surprise at the realization that it’s been three years since we were in church to witness such rituals as the blessing of the Palms, the reenactment of the washing of the apostles’ feet, the commemoration of the Lord’s passion and crucifixion, and the Easter vigil rituals.
Also being revived this year is the visita iglesia — church visits done after the Holy Thursday mass.
Two years of quarantine and lockdown equals three years of not being to participate in person in any of the foregoing — and being content to vicariously experience these on television screens or on smartphones and gadgets that allow livestreaming via the internet.
On the flipside, we could access events unfolding in the Vatican and elsewhere in Christendom in real time, such as our erstwhile Archbishop of Manila, Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle presiding over masses and delivering eloquent homilies. We could imagine ourselves being in popular pilgrimage sites such as the shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary in Manaoag, Pangasinan, the shrine of Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage in Antipolo City — without leaving the comfort of our homes.
After two years of virtual participation in erstwhile church-centered activities, the easing of quarantine restrictions has enabled the faithful to go back to their churches.
Three reflections come to the fore: first, Providence has willed this reality; second, life is a gift to be cherished; faith makes things possible.
Two years ago, on March 27, 2020, Pope Francis delivered a message from the deserted courtyard of St. Peter’s Basilica. Noting the fear that had engulfed humankind, he said: “Like the disciples in the Gospel, we were caught off guard by an unexpected, turbulent storm. We realized that we are on the same boat, all of us fragile and disoriented, but at the same time important and needed, all of us called to row together, each of us in need of comforting the other.”
He observed that in sharp contrast to the disciples’ fear, Jesus demonstrated trust as he stayed in the stern — the part of the boat that sinks first — and even slept while his followers tossed and turned. This, the Pontiff, noted, is “the only time in the Gospels we see Jesus sleeping.” After he awoke, he reproached the disciples: “Why are you afraid? Have you no faith?”
This is a reminder that our fate rests in God’s hands — and this is a faith-based realization. Just like the tempest in the sea, the pandemic that swept the world is a reality that is an “act of God” whose will is expressed in mysterious ways that could be discerned over time through faith and prayer. Pope Francis said:
“The storm exposes our vulnerability and uncovers those false and superfluous certainties around which we have constructed our daily schedules, our projects, our habits, our priorities. It shows how we have allowed ourselves to become dull and feeble, the very things that nourish, sustain and strengthen our lives and our communities. The tempest lays bare all our prepackaged ideas and forgetfulness of what nourishes people’s souls; all those attempts that anesthetize us with ways of thinking and acting that supposedly “save” us, but instead prove incapable of putting us in touch with our roots and keeping alive the memory of those who have gone before us. We deprive ourselves of the antibodies we need to confront adversity.
There were so many dear friends and relatives who were struck down and killed by Covid-19. It is difficult to simply “keep alive the memory of those who have gone before us” because the circumstances of their death inflicted so much pain and sorrow. Affliction with the novel coronavirus was a virtual death sentence that was carried out so swiftly and inhumanely: solitary confinement in intensive care units; immediate cremation; no in-person wakes. We ambled from one Zoom-mediated novena for the dead to another, night after night. It was good to see and be reunited with kith and kin living halfway across the globe or in faraway islands of the homeland —but did we have to be brought together like this by death and grief?
This made us realize that life is a gift to be cherished — as we moved from today to tomorrow, one day at a time; in fact, one breath at a time.
And then it happened: Alert Level 1, the least restrictive of all quarantine and lockdown options, was imposed starting March 1, 2022 in Metro Manila and 38 other areas. I realized that faith made it happen. For did we not pray Oratio Imperata day and night? Did we not hear mass, recite the rosary and offer novenas for the living and the dead — and especially for an end to Covid-19 — frequently and intensively for two years?
By God’s will and by our faith, we could also move freely about and join massive political rallies — even while still wearing facemasks. Most importantly, we could vote in a new set of leaders sans the fear of Covid — and face a brighter future that, we pray anew, we could experience by God’s grace.