By Seminarian Lucas J.

I’m writing this from my room. I would have been tired from Good Friday service in my parish. After acting as Jesus I always end up tired from the heat of the sun along Winchester road, Half way tree to Holy Cross where they crucify me just to dramatize what jesus went through. This should be my last year at UWI (University of West Indies), but instead of seating in class on campus or here at seminary, life for the past 3 weeks has turned to what word may not be able to explain perfectly. Four weeks ending today started with a hope of going back to school like after week, but nop! Not so! This would have been the last week of teaching but not anymore – most of students have gone back to their homes because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

WHAT DOES THE CROSS OF JESUS MEAN TO YOU?

Being home, doing nothing may sometime be so nice and something we all look forward to during summer time. But his one is not that sweet anymore, it feels like we are forced to be where we are with no prediction of what will happen when time comes to happen. Many of my friends were supposed to finish this year and being home certainly isn’t how most of use envisioned ending their last year. I miss my friends from ABC hall, my CSM friends, maybe father could have organised something for us this Easter, aww, no more.

I have trouble motivating myself to do my school work, my prayer life not in the level it should be though have done what I can. And I find myself in a state of uncertainty where it seems that no one really knows what’s next. Netflix has occupied part of my daily schedule, WhatsApp and Instagram has been my way of reaching out to those that I love the most. Usually when I feel lost like this, I’d try to make some plans, read a book or play music just contemplating a lot of things. But I can’t even do that because I’m not sure what next month or this summer will look like. All my plans have been posed. So, here I sit, trying to be at least a little productive and wonder what will come next. May be you’re in a similar situation as I am.

We all have update of how COVID-19 is scavenging people of all race and tongue, high ranks and law, poor and rich and I mean it’s not racist. At the sometime this pandemic make me to wonder how this unprecedented episode of a pandemic might affect the way we live our Christin life. Those good with arts and design have come up with memes of all kind. Some went to think little deeper and inscribed such words like “we all gave up seeing each other for Lent,” but what happens when Lent is over and passes and the Church asks us to rejoice during Easter? I wonder how those religious guys will feel watching the Easter Vigil Mass on their laptop or TV screens.

I cannot help but think that the sort of uncertainty we feel today is probably the same or similar to uncertainly the apostles felt during Christ’s Passion. The fear, the anger, the hopelessness, insecurity, depressed and ready to throw the towel. It may be the exact case you and me are in at this moment. On Good Friday, they watched Jesus suffer and die. The some man who had performed powerful healing miracles and had spoken of Himself as the Resurrection hung dead on the cross, just like any other convicted criminal. The disciples had for the future had been uprooted by the death of their leader, and in their imperfect following about Christ’s promise to come back to them. They likely felt lost and directionless, even abandoned. Do we feel the same way in the midst of a pandemic?

 Many persons have to face this reality just as disciples. It is real passion to see your beloved gasp for breath, die and not able to kiss them for the last time or view their body in a coffin. It has been dark moments, and nothing seems good about this “Good Friday” compared to the real day when Jesus was killed mercilessly. Many persons are in fear because of their health condition, age and circumstances that seem to stare at them like beast. One step out and they are consumed. Both rich and poor feel insecure, introverts are getting depressed after they can’t keep seated on place for a long time, hopelessness is spreading all over the world like the way children of Israel along the red sea.  The some people who may have promised to love you, to marry you, to be there for you. Maybe you were promised to be married, or a trip to moon and Pluto. You see them take their last breath and they are gone forever. Infected or affected this feeling is creeping in to all of us. We feel lost, directionless and even abandoned. But I remind you “DO NOT BE AFRAID, IT IS I.”

We call the Friday before Easter Good Friday, but, when we read the account of how Jesus died, it can seem like the event that we commemorate is actually pretty bad. It sounds as if to ask “WHAT IS GOOD ABOUT GOOD FRIDAY?” Is it good that Jesus seems to leave all of His followers and to pass on into the next life without them? What’s so good about Good such a Friday, especially this Good Friday during a global pandemic? Pose and ponder!

God is good. In fact, He’s goodness itself. Does that sound like a cop-out vacation Bible school sort of answer? Maybe. But I think it’s the central truth of our Christian faith. God is good at all time and that is his nature wow! No matter what happens around us, and we are to worship Him regardless of our situation. We don’t go to Mass to “get something out of it.” We go because God is so good that it would be wrong not to worship Him. And Good Friday isn’t called ‘good’ because everyone gets what he wants and then rides off into the sunset. God Friday is good because it accomplishes the perfect will of God. God sent Christ to earth knowing that He would suffer and die-the Old Testament prophets know of the Passion too. So the goodness of this so called “Good Friday” is due to God alone, not any particular happy situation. It feels so deep to understand all this, but no need to strain oneself, bring in faith and ask the Holy Spirit to guide you through.

‘Is God testing our faith?’ one participant ask during my interview with Bishop Ken las Wednesday. Is a question the all world is contemplating, a lot of questions going around peoples mind, with no answer? Is this COVID-19 pandemic the will of God? No – God does not deal in death. But, because we live in a fallen world with natural laws, natural evils like this pandemic do occur He wants to or need to but simply because they are a part of the world that was created and has fallen and is waiting to be redeemed.

God is infinitely good no matter what happens, and even in the midst of natural evils like what we are all facing today, COVID-19 pandemic, He is able to bring forth good. That means that Good Friday is still good even if there is a global pandemic. In fact, Good Friday was good even when Jesus died in front of all His disciples. That does not mean that the struggle of the disciples in the Gospel or the struggles that we face now do not matter. They matter a lit, and both the Gospel situation and our situation are serious. But, we can still have hope, because God is still good – HE STILL IS BRINGING LIFE FROM DEATH.

JESUS I TRUST IN YOU

As we move through Holy Week in a way the Church never has before and might never again, I pray that our hope will rest in God alone. If we hope only in the goodness of situations or the favourable outcomes that might befall us, I think we’ll always be disappointed. But we hope in God and His infinite goodness, we will never be let dawn. God is good even in a pandemic, in death and in life. Let us worship Him to the best of our abilities, for He deserves nothing less.

                                                                                             Kaka Joe Lucas (Inspired by Josh)