Holy Week Message from Father Gagné
Dear Parishioners,
The Surgeon General tells us that this week we will witness a tragedy the likes of which we have not seen in a generation, as the spread of covid-19 peaks.
The prediction is for many deaths and many more people being afflicted by this virus. This Holy Week will live on in our memories and in the memories of our children for many years to come.
For the believer, Holy Week has always been a time to reflect on the meaning of Christ’s death and Resurrection. Our reflection this year will be more than a pious arm-chair exercise that recalls past events in the life of Jesus. It will be a time when we, like Christ, will experience for ourselves the full weight of the cross of helplessness, fear, illness, sorrow, stress, and a change to our daily agendas and priorities.
We, like the followers of Jesus, will lock ourselves in the upper room of our homes for fear of the virus. Feeling the full weight of his cross could be a cause of despair, as it was for the apostles, who ran away, betrayed, denied, and left Jesus alone to carry his cross.
A stranger named Simon was called to help Jesus carry his cross, and a woman named Veronica, defied the crowds, and pushed through them to wash his face. He met his afflicted mother, he forgave the ones using the hammer, and promised one of the thieves that was being crucified with him that he would be with him in paradise that very day. It is important to note that Jesus did not die alone, but between two other criminals. Even in death he was entering fully into the human condition. When he died, a person named Joseph, from Arimathea took his body and laid it in his own tomb.
It is important to recognize that Jesus never gives up on us, in the same way he did not give up on Peter, who denied that he knew him. Both Peter and the good thief, despite their mistakes and weaknesses, chose in the end to trust in Jesus. The thief asks Jesus to remember him when he comes into his glory, and Peter, overcome with remorse, went out and wept bitterly.
As the shadow of the cross falls heavily across our church, our country, and upon each one of us, we wonder if we will ever return to the life we left behind, when we began this journey of Lent on Ash Wednesday.
In every dark moment of human history people of faith went deep into their hearts and souls and found the strength and the grace to rise again, and again, and again. Corrie Ten Boon, in a concentration camp in the Netherlands said, “I believe in the deepest darkest pit, God is deeper still.” During the bombing of Cologne, Germany, someone wrote on a basement wall the following words; “I believe in the sun, even when it is not shinning, I believe in love, even when I cannot feel it, and I believe in God, even when he is silent.”
This is the time for believers, to define this moment in history by the words they speak, and by their actions. I encourage you not to be ashamed to come to your church and kneel before the Blessed Sacrament, the source and summit of all we are. In the quiet of the church, grace beyond measure will be poured into our souls and hearts, by our God who dwells in our hearts, in our souls, in our home churches, and upon the Holy Altar of our parish church.
While we support the efforts of our secular leaders to keep us safe, and provide whatever they deem necessary to promote the welfare and common good of everyone, we must remember to return to God what belongs to God. Our God has allowed us to stop being too busy to pray, to come to church, to be here for our children, our friends and our neighbors. Now we have all the time in the world to reflect upon what is most essential in our lives.
Like the women, hurrying to the tomb, we too ask ourselves, who will roll the stone away from the tomb of our confinement? The one who said, “I will not leave you orphans,” and who told us that, “where two or three were gathered in his name, he would be there,” is the one who will roll back the stone for us.
Msgr. Iacovacci and I will take you to the altar on Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and on Holy Saturday Night. We will all be together in spirit and in truth. We will meet on the website for Easter Mass on Easter Sunday, and on following Sundays, until we open again.
Thank you so much for your support, cards and kind words during this difficult time. Although separated, we know we are not alone. I look forward to that day when we will fill our churches, mosques, synagogues, and every place of worship with our prayers, chants, hymns and songs.
In the words of Jesus, “Peace be with you, do not be afraid, I am with always until the end of time”. Let us continue to journey in faith and pray for each other, and for people everywhere.
Father Gagné