A Very Different Holy Week

04-05-2020From Fr. Antony's DeskFr. John Barbella

Anyone who knows me even a little bit, knows that Palm Sunday is one of my favorite days of the year! That being the case, I’m sure you can imagine how sad I am that we have to celebrate this Palm Sunday so differently than usual. The same, of course, is true of Holy Week and Easter. While we will most certainly post the Liturgies on our parish website – where I hope you will prayerfully watch them – it’s just not the same!

Perhaps we can take some comfort and hope from the example of some of our Catholic ancestors who likewise had to maintain their faith without being able to celebrate Mass or receive Holy Communion. One such group was the Catholics of Japan, who were without a priest for nearly 300 years! By the early 1600’s, the Japanese government had either killed or exiled every Catholic priest in the country – hoping to stamp out the Catholic faith.

But the good Catholics of that country maintained – and even passed on – their faith just the same! Parents taught the Gospel, catechism, and prayers to their children. While they could not have Mass or receive Holy Communion, they prayed and received Spiritual Communion by asking Jesus to come at least spiritually into their hearts.

Although they could not go to sacramental Confession, they remembered the doctrine of perfect contrition – which teaches us that when we are truly sorry for our sins not just because we fear God’s punishment, but because we love Him and don’t want to offend Him, we can have forgiveness for even mortal sins provided we do our best to avoid them in the future and resolve to go to regular Confession as soon as we possibly can.

When Catholic missionaries were finally allowed into Japan again in the late 1800’s, they were both shocked and inspired to find whole ‘parishes’ of Catholics secretly living their faith as best as they could. These Catholics were thrilled to finally have priests available to them, and to be able to attend Mass and receive Holy Communion – things their grandparents and great grandparents could dream of but never do!

The story of the Japanese Catholics – and of Catholics in Korea at that time as well – can serve as an inspiration for us today. The freedom of religion we enjoy in our country is a wonderful thing that has allowed us tremendous access to the Mass and sacraments for hundreds of years! We should thank God for that, and for the fact that the current pandemic will not keep us from these treasures of our faith for too long!

May the example of the Japanese and Korean Catholics – and so many other Catholics throughout history and around the world today – remind us that we can endure this temporary separation from the sacraments, as they did. While it’s certainly not a perfect situation, or an ideal way to practice our faith, like so many Catholics before us, we can hold onto, celebrate, and perhaps even grow in our Faith.

Please remember that you can find the celebrations for Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter on our parish website at spsj.org. It’s nice to know that more than a thousand people have watched the Sunday Masses posted there for the last two weeks. I cannot wait to see you all in person, face to face – like the Apostles saw Jesus after He rose from the dead!

Until then, say a Hail Mary for me each day, be assured of my prayers for you, and keep the faith!

A blessed Holy Week to all!

Fr. John

P.S. Palms blessed at the online Mass on Palm Sunday will be distributed when we are able to have Mass together again!

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