MANILA, Philippines — The new coronavirus failed to keep Filipino Catholics from observing Palm Sunday.
Priests went around communities in lockdown to bless palm fronds waved by people from the front of their houses or delivered blessing from the back of trucks and motorized tricycles.
In a photo posted on CBCPNews, the official news service of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), a priest blesses palm fronds from a tricycle in Borongan City, Eastern Samar.
Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo, in his homily during Palm Sunday Mass at Manila Cathedral that was live-streamed on Facebook, said liturgical activities this year would be a lot different, “but Holy Week must continue.”
Bright side
Catholics in many parts of the world may miss the “externalities” of the celebrations, he said, but “this may be a good chance for us to go into the essence of what we are doing.”
“There is always a bright side in what is happening even in this COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.
Pabillo urged the faithful to spend the remaining days of the Luzon lockdown in prayer and reflection.
“Let us not mind so much that we are already in the fourth week of the lockdown. Let us not complain. But let us use this silence and inactivity of the lockdown this Holy Week to reflect and to pray,” he said.
He encouraged the faithful to think of the difficulties brought about by COVID-19 as a way of being one with Jesus, who died for mankind.
“Of course, after four weeks, there are already lots of complaints, not only of inconvenience, not only of boredom, but, even for some, because of great need. They might be hungry already. Let us join all these sufferings to that of Jesus. He loves us so much that he suffered for us,” Pabillo said.
“We welcome him today, let us continue to welcome him. We recognize him and he still comes to us in the ordinariness of our lives even when we are under quarantine. It’s good to pause and see how is the Lord coming to us during these days,” he added.
This Holy Week is a good time to reflect on why Jesus suffered so much and that his suffering should “lead us to sorrow and gratitude—sorrow for our sins, for our indifference, and gratitude for his great love and solidarity with us,” Pabillo said.
Not less holy
“We may be celebrating this year’s Holy Week differently, but hopefully, more deeply,” he said, adding that the absence of traditional religious activities does not make Holy Week less holy.
Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas echoed Pabillo’s views, saying Holy Week is about love, not rituals.
“Love makes us holy. Love, not rituals, is the spirit of Holy Week,” he said.
Fr. Jerome Secillano, executive secretary of the CBCP public affairs committee, also said Holy Week “shouldn’t be less holy since what makes it really holy is the sacrifice of Christ and not the participation of people.”
—TINA G. SANTOS