FOR the first time in the history of the Roman Catholic Church in Malaysia, its followers are forced to sit tight and pray at home during Holy Week, which is the holiest season in the church’s calendar.
In our living memory, we have not been denied the opportunity to visit a church or partake of a church service during the Holy Week, although many churches may have had to experience this during the Second World War, where bombs were going off in different parts of the world, and many churches were shelled.
We also know from history (and also in recent times) of the existence of the “underground” churches, where its congregation had to hide the fact that they were gathering to pray.
What is new for us now, is that we are staying at home during the Movement Control Order and not engaging in our faith secretly, but because we are in the midst of fighting a global pandemic.
What is most heartening at this moment is the acknowledgement and gestures of support extended by other communities to the Catholics and Christians.
The Mufti of the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore, Dr Nazirudin Mohd Nasir, has displayed amazing command of thought and language in a letter penned to the president of the National Council of Churches Singapore, Bishop Terry Kee.
“This is certainly a contemplative time for our communities,” the Mufti wrote. “We are grateful that our respective traditions empower us with meaning, values and lessons that will make us stronger and more resilient in face of adversity.
“For the Christian community, the significance of Easter Sunday cannot be overstated. Pain and suffering gave birth to God’s forgiveness and salvation through the ultimate sacrificial act of Jesus.”
The Catholics and other Christians are not the only ones needing to make adjustments to their way of worship, burying the dead and celebrating feast and other special days during this time.
“We truly emphatise with the challenges that the Christian community faces, in not being able to celebrate these momentous events in the most ideal way,” Dr Nazirudin added.
“We too, face the same prospect for Ramadan and Hari Raya.”
The Mufti in his letter also said that the current Covid-19 outbreak underscores the importance of renewing our hope and digging deep within our faith and traditions for optimism, amidst a bleak and gloomy global situation.
The fact that we have been denied the privilege of going to worship in our churches now, is simply as a way of protecting our bodies from the Covid-19 epidemic.
Most of us may be struggling with this situation and the MCO, because we are creatures of habit, and carry with us, some sense of entitlement.
And the older we get, it becomes harder to break away from those habits and from the sense of entitlement to those habits.
This includes going to church, attending funeral wakes and participating in the social elements of the religious communities in which we belong.
Although Catholics and other Christians in Malaysia may be physically apart this Holy Week, they remain drawn together in spirit, and should continue to cooperate and adhere with all the measures introduced by the government.
It is time to seek and practise creative ways of maintaining religious traditions, in the face of necessary social distancing and to remain healthy, hopeful and most importantly, at home.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times