Brethren, today we begin the celebration of the Holiest week in our Liturgical calendar. We commemorate Jesus’ final entry into the holy city of Jerusalem. People preceded him and welcomed him joyfully. However, this is the same group of people that turned around and shouted: “Crucify Him”. What went wrong? Jesus did not segregate. All were welcome into his company. Our generation repeats this cycle of acceptance and rejection of Jesus, not so much verbally but with our actions.
This week will be holy for us not because of our liturgical vocabulary. But because we will live our lives in a manner radically different from the past, on all levels of our existence. Being engulfed in this Covid-19 pandemic, we share a common human experience of the fear of losing our health; the fear of losing our jobs; the fear of losing our dignity. Uncertainty has gripped us; we have discovered that we are powerless. We are confronted with our mortality. The meaning of life as a sacred gift, has gotten a new meaning.
However, there is some good news. In the midst of this pandemic we are witnessing and noticing tangible evidence of solidarity and genuine compassion in our first responders, health caregivers, primary caregivers, friends and family. This situation has produced the best in humanity. These are men and women, who like the good thief at Jesus Crucifixion, have chosen to die by Jesus’ side. In the Passion and Crucifixion story, we find pride, betrayal, denial, fear and death. In the end, there was victory over sin and death. There was the resurrection. Likewise, in this Covid-19 pandemic, we find, incidences of great pride, denial, finger pointing, betrayal, fear shift of blame and failure. However, as Christians we believe that at the end there will be recovery, rebuilding of broken humanity and Resurrection.
Therefore, let us make this Holy Week special. Let us ask God to bless us with spiritual resilience, so that we can overcome any traces of spiritual rigidity, accept being reformed and recreated into the kinds of people God desires for himself. A people who will produce moral, spiritual, ethical and physical fruits that will reflect the characteristics of the citizens of the kingdom of God. Let us live our lives in such a way, that people the world will say that truly we are God’s children. The Palms we have received, must become a symbol of our faithful to God’s call to holiness. This is our story of salvation.
Have a blessed Holy Week.
Fr. Lucas Kazimiro Simango
Pastor
