Bishop Checchio: seek ‘deep union with Christ’ during difficult time

METUCHEN – As Catholics around the world entered into Holy Week on Palm Sunday with the commemoration of Jesus’s entrance into Jerusalem, Catholics in the Diocese of Metuchen, unable to be physically present together in their local parishes because of social distancing, participated in livestreamed Masses from their own homes.

From the empty Cathedral of St. Francis of Assisi, Bishop James F. Checchio celebrated a livestreamed Mass for Palm Sunday.

In not being able to physically attend the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, to be nourished physically by the Body and Blood of the Lord, Bishop Checchio said the faithful are sacrificing daily and now, more than ever, need to nourish themselves with faith.

He urged families to participate in the Masses and services of the week, even remotely. A complete list of livestreams for Holy Week can be found at www.diometuchen.org.

“Let us make our Church in our homes and in our families – the domestic church – come alive for us this week in a new way. Let us participate and be strengthened in our faith, so that our Church may grow stronger, our families, our state, and our country, even our whole world, may be made over in the image that God created it to be,” he said. “Indeed, this is what this gift of this unique Holy Week could be for us. God awaits us, He desires us. It’s up to us to respond.”

Holy Week, which begins with Palm Sunday and culminates with the celebration of the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday, when the Church begins in darkness and steadily moves into the light of the Resurrection, will undoubtedly be different for Catholics this year as churches remain empty and parishes gather for Masses and services remotely, but their homes and hearts are still filled with Christ.

In his homily, Bishop Checchio noted how the triumph of Christ’s procession into Jerusalem on a donkey on Palm Sunday quickly disappears “as we stand at the foot of the cross,” a reference to the reading of the Passion of Our Lord.

“Even though sorrowful,” he said of Christ on the cross, this “boldly testifies to the truth that the one answer to any desolation, the one answer to any challenge we face, the one answer to even death itself, is true deep union with Christ. No one and no thing can separate us from Christ.”

Just as Mary, the mother of God cradled her son, noted Bishop Checchio, she cradles “all of our failures, desperation, our isolation, our alienation, loneliness, our regrets, our remorse, our sorrow, our sufferings, our nothingness, desolation, defeat.”

Mary, the bishop said, “even cradles a worldwide pandemic. Any, and all of it, is in Mary’s maternal arms.”

Noting the challenges of being a faithful Catholic in today’s world, especially during these unprecedented times, Bishop Checchio said he is grateful for the tradition of spiritual communion, which allows the faithful to continue in their discipleship, to continue in their works of mercy and love for others, even during this pandemic.

“My brothers and sisters in Christ, our prayer for this holiest of weeks during this sad and challenging time for our world might well be that Mary obtain for us this beautiful gift – the beautiful grace of perfect faith – whether in the joyful moments of life or even in the desolation and suffering of trials, like the one we’re all facing right now,” said Bishop Checchio. “Nothing, nothing gives God glory like this type of faith. How our world needs this type of faith right now!”

As the coronavirus continues to spread and claim lives, Bishop Checchio reminded the faithful that “God is calling us to something, and even in the midst of this pandemic, he has not forgotten us,” noting that just as Jesus stayed with the Blessed Mother at the foot of the cross, “so he stays with us even now.”

“We need to have a fire lit in the heart of our Church. I thank you for all you are doing to accomplish this, to give praise and glory to the Father, to be his disciples always, in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health,” said Bishop Checchio. “This Holy Week is perhaps just what we need to assist us further is attaining even more perfect faith – faith like our Blessed Mother’s. We can have it too.”