PÁSCOA: Como o Corona vírus nos definiu

I don’t think any christian that worth the name would want us to bore him/her with the meaning of Easter in this discourse. Mas caso alguém se importe, podemos dar uma olhada superficial no que a Páscoa simboliza.

Em poucas palavras, let’s say that on Christmas, Jesus came with a mission, at Easter, he accomplished it.

A temporada que começa no domingo de Páscoa atravessa um período expandido de 50 dias, culminando no domingo de Pentecostes.

Quaresma nos preparou para isso, de uma maneira mais especial, que o Advento poderia nos preparar para o Natal. Época de Natal mal dura 10 dias, incluindo sua oitava, enquanto a época da Páscoa se estende 50 dias ininterruptos de celebrar o mistério da nossa redenção. A última semana antes da Páscoa (semana Santa) está repleto de atividades sagradas intensas que incutem sentimento de respeito por esse banquete àqueles que participam deles: – Domingo de Ramos, Maundy Thursday (Chrism Mass, and Mass of the last supper), the aliturgical day – Good Friday commemoration of the Lord’s passion (the greatest celebration of God’s mercy), Paschal Saturday vigil. All these shape our soul for the hallowed days of Easter.

But this year’s Easter was unique!

No elaborate Easter duty, no solemn activities of the holy week. Two major Archdioceses – Abuja and Lagos have their doors shut! Others operated in low-key, running skeletal observance of the salvation event, courtesy of the cryptic virus wrecking havoc across the length and breadth of the world.

Vatican city – that great and influential headquarters of christendom, having enforced the order itself led by example. Pope Francis in the counsel of his Curiae enjoined christians, pilgrims, tourists and workers to vacate the ancient city of christian heritage. St. Peter’s square was deserted, in such a way that the ever-booming faith centre became a shadow of itself.

Rome that was not built in a day, got emptied in a day!

The mother church declared that until the pandemic subsides, priests should only celebrate “Misa pro populo” – “Mass for the people, without the people (congregation) being physically present.” Isso é, from the comfort of their rooms, the faithfuls would receive the graces accruing from the Masses.

assim, from Palm Sunday which introduces the holy week, it was obvious that we are in for an Easter of no, or reduced physical presence in the Lord’s passion.

The coming of Christ divided time and history into two distinct periods: Before Christ (BC) and Anno Domini (DE ANÚNCIOS) que significa “in the Year of the Lord.”

That shows we are is still in a good time! 2020 is still in the year of the Lord. O vírus não pode mudar o ponteiro do tempo para nos levar de volta aos dias de Ichabod (1Sam. 2:41).

Na atual conjuntura, permita-me divagar um pouco, para desenhar ilustração de outras esferas da vida. A pandemia do vírus Corona provocou tantas coisas que nunca soubemos ou apreciamos sobre a humanidade.

Por exemplo, mostrou o quão voláteis alguns países que pensávamos eram excelentes em termos de prestação de serviços de saúde (China, Itália e EUA).

Eles agora estão imploradamente!

O mesmo caminho, expôs tantos personagens no mundo do futebol, with heated debates presently ongoing on whether or not players (especailly in EPL) will accept compulsory pay cut. Já, some players in French League 1 have declined and got sacked by the clubs. The mysterious virus has shown us the greed of some club owners as well as players with less generous hearts.

In the same vane, the christian world was not spared. The pandemic did implicate three categories of christians: the cosmetic christians, the lukewarm christians and the faithful christians.

1. Christians with cosmetic spirituality are the ones who mistake enthusiasm for faith. They profess christianity just to impress the people and earn the honour of being born again, but their lives represent neither christ nor the teaching of his church. They dress well on Sundays, participate in church events as a show of piety. They are the ones who criticized the Church the most for observing the lockdown. It spoiled their show😀🤣

Eles pensam miopicamente que a Igreja subsiste apenas nos edifícios físicos. Uma vez que a igreja está fechada, eles não conhecem a Cristo novamente. Eles acreditam mais nos jornais do que na Bíblia.

Para essa classe de cristãos, a comemoração anual da paixão do Senhor, morte e ressurreição para este ano foi pousio, sem cerimônia e sem supervisão. Covid-19 roubou o show; Páscoa 2020 foi icodificado.

2. Os cristãos mornos são aqueles que absorvem a espiritualidade de Nichodemus (JN. 3:1-4), os duvidosos Thomases. For fear of being tagged “holy nweje” they reduce themselves to nominal christians.

They were pleased with the stay-at-home order. Depois de tudo, they have not been fans of the doctrine of mandatory Sunday worships. At least they are free from offerings, second collections, levies, launching etc, that burden their hearts 🤣😆😀

Sundays through out this period were used to attend to other secular matters. They may have known much about the Church teaching on Misa pro populo, but who cares?

They emphatically stress the concept of “Uka di n’ obi” out of proportion. They had doubt whether they can access the grace of the Masses from the enclave of their homes. In that doubt, like Nichodemus, they would wait for emperical evidence of the Lord’s passion before they could come out in the twilight of good Friday to participate in the solemn duties. And this they never had.

Assim sendo, para eles, Lent and Easter of 2020 has come and gone. They are indifferent. The best among them may wear melancholic look, because the routine Easter duty was denied of them.

Fr. Ernest Chukwu Makata would later, on Holy Saturday console them saying: “It may look sad and disappointing not being together in the Church to shout Alleluia this Easter time. But that was exactly how the disciples felt on that 1st Holy Saturday ever. They were downcast, felt abandoned and fearful. Contudo, when the day broke, their joy knew no bounds.”

3. Then the third category: the faithful christians. These can be tagged the Pauline Christians. They believe like Apostle Paul that nothing can separate them from the Love of Christ, not even Covid-19 (Rm 8:35-38). And so in their heart, como aconselhado pelo próprio apóstolo das nações, eles decoraram altares, de onde, eles ofereceram serviços espirituais em conexão com seus padres da paróquia, e compartilhado nas graças suficientes do Misa pro populo (1Cor. 6:19; 2Cor. 12:9). Eles sabiam que essa pandemia apenas trouxe a profecia de Jo. 4:21-24, para realização prática; que os dias estão aqui, quando os verdadeiros adoradores não precisarão de Roma, nem Jerusalém, (nem igreja física) adorar a Deus.

Quando o magistério ordenou o bloqueio de igrejas, eles se retiraram para a igreja do seu interior, onde adoravam a Deus em verdade e espírito.

Esses cristãos paulinos também sabiam que sua família é uma igreja doméstica – “Ecclesia domestica.” Aqui o pai serve como padre, a mãe como catequista, e as crianças como congregação.

Antes do altar da família, eles faziam as leituras diárias, refletido nos seus rolamentos, recitou o rosário diário e concluiu com orações de comunhão espiritual.

Nos telefones e nas estantes de livros, they have both the soft and hard copies of the Daily Missal, manual of prayers for Sundays Without A Priest, Pieta prayers, etc. With these instruments, they maintained constant communion with the Church of Christ, and enjoyed the fruits of the solemn activities of Lent and Easter.

To them, 2020 solemnities of Easter was a success, and Christ is risen!

There is a fourth category, but they don’t really deserve our attention. These are the ones whose faith do not go deeper than their noses. They even leave the Catholic Church because they claim her mode of worship is dull, uninteresting, with boring rituals and archaic liturgy. To this class of christians, anything they don’t feel doesn’t exist. They seek crusade centers, adoration and prophetic grounds where God is worshipped in theatrics and gingered swaggers. Odumeje followers can relate. 😆😆😀🤣

They only believe in the sensual feeling of satisfaction after much shouting, jumping and clapping.

They don’t know that christian spirituality is not all about how one feels during or after worships. According to St. Francis De Sales, “It is a mistake on the part of christians to think that our service of God is less agreeable to His divine Majesty, when it is made without feeling, because our actions like roses which though they have more external grace, when they are fresh, yet give forth a sweeter and stronger scent when they are dry.”

Countless metabolic activities go on in our bodies each time we eat, we don’t feel any of it, yet we believe, and rightly too, that the food nourishes us.

But then, the people in this category detest Church service that doesn’t quench their thirst for rigorous and boisterous worship style, that will satiate their lust. These are Baal’s people (1Kings 18:27-28).😀😀🤣

The lessons of this period were enormous. But none is louder than the news that CHRIST is RISEN!

And St. Clement of Alexandria informed us that “HE has turned all our sunsets into sunrise.” Ele condescendeu tão baixo àqueles cujos pecados ele perdoou para se tornar um devedor por sua promessa.

Convid pode persistir o máximo que puder, mas não pode reduzir a alegria do povo Allelua – os filhos da Páscoa de Sião (Dan.3:17-18), porque estamos mortos ou vivos, nós somos de Cristo, porque nele vivemos, e mover e manter nosso ser (Atos 17:28).

“O amor de Deus, todas operação, bônus é” – E todas as coisas funcionam juntas para sempre, para aqueles que amam a Deus (ROM. 8:28).

Feliz Páscoa meu povo!

Por: Eze Jude O.