MANILA Archbishop Cardinal Jose Advincula yesterday welcomed back Catholics to churches for the observance of the Holy Week, the first time after two years since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
Churches nationwide were closed to the public during the Holy Week in 2020 and 2021 because of community restrictions imposed amid the pandemic.
“We are thankful because, after two years of hard lockdown and we were limited to online observance of the Holy Week, we can now go back to our churches and join in prayers and other activities,” Advincula said in his homily during the Palm Sunday Mass at the Manila Cathedral.
With the faithful now able to physically attend religious activities, Advincula asked them to exert efforts to “make noise” in praising God.
“Today, we begin the Holy Week, the most important week for every Christian. Amid the meaningless noise around us, let us shout out loud Hosanna to the son of David so we could defeat those who shout to crucify Him,” said Advincula.
“Let us cry out to whole world through our lips and lives that Jesus Christ is Lord and that He alone is the savior of the world,” he added.
Advincula said he issued the call as there appears to be louder noise for less important matters than Jesus Christ.
“When it comes to money, wealth, position, power, and popularity, it seems that the noise is way louder,” he said.
“But when it comes to God, faith, truth, and justice, why is it that there are only whispers or even silence,” he added.
Earlier, some Catholic dioceses issued requests to national and local candidates to silence their campaign jingles when near places of worship out of respect to those praying inside churches, especially during Sundays.
Also yesterday, Advincula led the unveiling of the statue of the “Homeless Jesus” installed at the facade of the Manila Cathedral.
He urged the faithful to not be contented with taking selfies with the statue.
“Listen to what it is saying and respond to its message by showing love and concern for the poor and the homeless,” he said.
POPE’S CALL
VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis called for an Easter truce in Ukraine and condemned the “folly of war” as he led Palm Sunday services in St. Peter’s Square before an audience of tens of thousands of people.
Palm Sunday commemorates the day the Gospel says Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey and was hailed by the people, only to be crucified five days later.
It marks the start of Holy Week leading up to Easter Sunday in the Roman Catholic Church on April 17 this year. Ukraine is predominantly Orthodox. Orthodox Christians celebrate Easter a week later, on April 24.
Pope Francis also urged negotiations to find a solution to the conflict. In an apparent reference to Russia, he said: “What kind of victory would be one that plants a flag on a heap of rubble?”
Francis spoke at the end of a Palm Sunday service, the first since 2019 in which the public had been allowed back in the square following two years of scaled-back services because of COVID-19 restrictions.
Some in the crowd put small Ukrainian flags at the tip of olive branches and a woman who read one of the prayers near the altar was dressed in the flag’s blue and yellow colors.
“Put the weapons down! Let An Easter truce start. But not to rearm and resume combat but a truce to reach peace through real negotiations open to some sacrifices for the good of the people,” Francis said.
Francis earlier evoked the horrors of war in his homily, speaking of “mothers who mourn the unjust death of husbands and sons… refugees who flee from bombs with children in their arms… young people deprived of a future.. .soldiers sent to kill their brothers and sisters.”
Since the war began, Francis has only mentioned Russia specifically in prayers, such as during a global event for peace on March 25. But he has referred to Russia by using terms such as invasion and aggression. — With Reuters
A flare-up of pain in his knee forced Francis, 85, to skip the traditional procession from the obelisk at the centre of the square to the altar on the steps of St. Peter’s Basilica.
He watched instead while seated at the altar, to where he was driven in a small car. He later limped as he said the Mass.
