Holy Week 2020

Richard A. Sokerka

During a Holy Week like no other in the history of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis sent a video message to Catholics around the world, urging them amid the global coronavirus pandemic to have hope, solidarity with those who suffer, and to pray.

“In the risen Jesus, life conquered death,” Pope Francis says in the video, speaking about Holy Week that will culminate with Easter this Sunday.

“We will celebrate Holy Week in a truly unusual way, which manifests and sums up the message of the Gospel, that of God’s boundless love,” the Pope says in the video.

“And in the silence of our cities, the Easter Gospel will resound,” Pope Francis says. “This paschal faith nourishes our hope.”

Christian hope, the Holy Father says, is “the hope of a better time, in which we can be better, finally freed from evil and from this pandemic. It is a hope: hope does not disappoint. Beside each other, in love and patience, we can prepare a better time in these days.”

This can be done this Holy Week during the Pascal Triduum by praying on Holy Thursday, the day Jesus instituted the Eucharist, the source and summit of our faith, and the priesthood. And on Good Friday, by fasting and praying, offering our sufferings in this pandemic to the Lord as he is crucified for our sins and so that we may have eternal glory with him. Holy Saturday, the Easter Vigil, is a time to pray in quiet reflection in preparation for the certain hope of Christ’s Resurrection.

The Triduum is a time, as the Pope says in the video, to be in solidarity with families, to pray for the elderly and those who are sick with coronavirus, people who are in hospitals, those in financial straits through no fault of their own, and the homeless, who do not have a home to protect them. It is also a time to remember in prayer the generosity of those who put themselves at risk for the treatment of this pandemic or to guarantee the essential services to society.

This Holy Week is not what we expected when we received ashes in the form of a cross on our forehead on Ash Wednesday to mark the start of Lent. So much in our world and neighborhoods has changed since that day. We are missing being able to go to Church and receiving the Eucharist in this most holy season and attending the liturgies of Holy Week and Easter morning due to the evil scourge of this pandemic.

Remember this: during that first Holy Week, God brought forth the greatest imaginable good out of the greatest imaginable evil.

Count your blessings this Holy Week and live it in a spiritual way as never before. Know that as Easter dawns, it brings us the great joy of Jesus Christ’s triumph over death, fulfilling God’s promise to us all.