Easter 2020 and of years past

The two most important dates of Christendom are Easter and Christmas. In the history of Christianity, these two dates remind us of spiritual birth and resurrection.

The coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically challenged many aspects of social and religious life. It affects all religions. Easter 2020 was momentously different from those of years past because of the pandemic.

Easter mass in Rome without crowd of worshippers. It was a major event in Christianity when the Easter mass was celebrated by Pope Francis in the almost empty St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome. It is the church obeying the rules imposed by civil government on social distancing.

Of course, the mass was celebrated for the benefit of all Catholics the world over, overcoming the restrictions imposed by social distancing and lockout because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

If there were parallel efforts to reach some of the faithful in other parts of the world, similar ceremonies were also held under the same restrictions like the television mass celebrated in the US Catholic National Shrine in Washington DC.

In our churches, there was essentially silence, too, and if some services were held, they were undertaken for a crowd that was designed for a larger, virtual television community.

Personal and family remembrances. Past Easters were an essential part of my family experience as it probably is also for many Filipinos.

Easter time also marked, in my youth while studying abroad in wintry Cambridge, Massachusetts, the time of year when spring came and announced a message of warmer weather, the bursting of colors from flowers, and then the emergence of young green leaves from trees awakening from their wintry rest.

In the first week of April of 1963, my wife and I with our brood of two young toddlers were in St. Peter’s Square, to partake of the Easter mass that the Pope celebrated with the people. (I was then returning from my studies abroad, on the way home to assume my duties at the University of the Philippines.) The crowd of worshippers and tourists was very deep, and my family could only reach the outer bounds of that great square.

The square filled with worshippers even as the pope celebrated Easter mass in the packed cathedral. It was the same Easter story. Decades before and decades after.

This was until three days ago when the square and the cathedral inside were empty of worshippers, while Pope Francis celebrated mass.

Through the years of Easter, the sunrise service was a part of the family celebration. We woke up early, put on respectful dress and then heard the sunrise service. Almost always, this occasion was filled with beautiful music sang by a well-practiced choir.

And then, innovation in customs also evolved. The Easter egg hunt was introduced and made parents and children discover a new activity that helped to tie the bonds of generations among parents and their young. In some churches, or to some families, the egg hunt became a part of the Easter tradition.

Under the lockout, some families still are able to get together to celebrate even when they are miles (in fact in some cases as it is in my family, thousands of miles) apart.

The magic of technology and communications has made the world compact even though we cannot see each other physically or be within the required social distancing. E-mail, internet, smart phones, Hangout, Skype, Zoom, other apps have allowed family togetherness even while being isolated and confined in ones’ respective homes.

In my family’s case this Easter Sunday, Zoom enabled us to be within each other’s visual and audial reach through the praying, the recitation of specific biblical verses and the conversations on dear topics that families often discuss! Technology broadens our vistas and our capacities to reach each other.

Wider implications of COVID-19 on religious practices. In this fast changing world, great innovations are happening which are speeding change for many aspects of living that touch areas of society, economy, government and religion.

The world’s technological and communications revolution has penetrated human interactions. The sudden arrival of stringent conditions of lockdown and mitigation of pandemic spread touches all – highly advanced societies and developing societies like ours.

They also impact the practices of religious institutions.

Ultimately and perhaps sometime soon, medical science will find the cure and the vaccines, and governments will make improvements in their public health policies. Also, society would find acceptance for rules of (perhaps closer) social distancing as well as of hygienic standards of personal cleanliness.

In this context, the recent adjustments made by religious authorities in the light of the social distancing and lockdown rules suggests that church leaders accept the many truths about epidemiology and science. Perhaps this will lead to improved practices in religious rites.

In this connection, I have always felt that some education is needed in the practice about kissing and close contact among successive lines of devotees concerning religious relics and images that are considered sacred and miraculous.

Even if the miraculous benefits for devotees could have their claimed validity, what we learn from this pandemic most is how infectious viruses are transmitted. The authorities, both church and civil, need to find a common approach that is safer and healthier.

Over the years and decades, the Quiapo rite of parading the Black Nazarene in January of each year has grown into a massive event that paralyzes Manila for a day. The male devotees take turns to move the Nazarene’s cart while attempting to get a towel swipe from the statue. That process is extremely difficult to achieve as it requires a lot of body contact with other devotees.

It is also a public safety hazard. The crowd that it generates is so large, and yet compact, that a deadly stampede could easily be triggered by any disturbance – for instance, a thrown grenade or a simple gunshot.

A “new normal” for human activity – religious, social, sports, and economic – will emerge that is very different from the way we have done things before.

My email is: [email protected]. For archives of previous Crossroads essays, go to: https://www.philstar.com/authors/1336383/gerardo-p-sicat. Visit this site for more information, feedback and commentary: http://econ.upd.edu.p h/gpsicat/