Merry Christmas! It is ‘merry’ because we have a God who continues to remind us that he is with us even in our darkest and lowest moments: “The people who sit in darkness have seen a great light, on those dwelling in a land overs overshadowed by death light has arisen” (Matthew 4:16). With the new hopes and resolutions that Christmas brings, we walk into the final week of the year 2021, which had its fair share of good and bad!
The pandemic touched our lives and we are still learning to live with coronavirus. Of course, not everything was sad nor painful in 2021. It also brought us joys, newness, extraordinary blessings, and providence. The fact that we are still alive and can look back and see with gratitude all the varied experiences that the year had brought us qualifies it a good year. It deserves to be celebrated with expressions of gratitude to God and affection towards one another.
In the past year, the continuation of the pandemic situation brought about drastic changes in our lifestyles. Every strata of society was affected. Thanks to stringent quarantine measures, testing and vaccination drives, as well as social welfare schemes and cash and voucher handouts, Hong Kong fared better than most of the world, with fewer infections and deaths, and relatively less harm to the economy. In his first-ever message as bishop of Hong Kong, Bishop Chow remarked that the pandemic brought us together irrespective of our social, political and religious differences and prompted us to care for those in need.
The liturgical year began with Pope Francis opening the Year of St. Joseph on 8 December 2020, marking the 150th anniversary of the Church’s declaration of Saint Joseph as the Patron of the Universal Church. A year later, as the year of St. Joseph was nearing its close, the pope began a series of catechesis on St. Joseph during his Wednesday general audience. “Today, as never before, in this time marked by a global crisis, “St. Joseph can offer us “support, consolation, and guidance,” the pope said on November 17.
Although 2021 began with most liturgical services being offered online, the SAR government gradually eased social distancing regulations, permitting partial religious gatherings during Holy Week. The faithful returned to the liturgy and the sacraments with great relief and joy on the Holy Thursday. The unavailability of sacraments for months instilled in their hearts greater love and devotion to the liturgical services.
Pope Francis appointed Jesuit Father Stephen Chow Sau Yan as the new bishop of Hong Kong on May 17. His subsequent episcopal ordination and installation on December 4 were great moments of joy and hope. Bishop Chow’s attention to the concerns of young people and his call to listen to all voices and together discern the future of the Church with an objective of ‘unity in plurality’ establishes a new direction to the life of the diocese.
The worldwide opening of the synodal process for the Synod of Bishops on Synodality worldwide on 17 November is another ambitious project of the Church for the years 2021-2023. Synodality, if implemented as the pope intends, could flag some radical reform for Church in the modern world. jose, cmf.
