This week marks the beginning of Lent, the liturgical season of fasting and prayer that leads up to Easter. For the third consecutive year, it will be under the cloud of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic.
In the first few decades of the early Church, there was no liturgical celebration other than the weekly celebration of the Lord’s Resurrection. Towards the end of the 1st century, the community of believers felt the need to celebrate the central event of their faith in a unique way. So the first of the feasts, Easter, the Feast of Feasts, was born. Christians attached great importance to attendance at this feast.
To reap the spiritual fruits of Easter, one had to be free of all grave sins. Thus it was the custom to observe two days of prayer, reflection, and fasting to express sorrow for the death of Jesus. Gradually, the preparation period was prolonged: in the 3rd century, it became a week, then three weeks, until it was extended to forty days in the 4th century. That was the beginning of the season of Lent.
Currently in Hong Kong, the reopening of churches and resumption of public celebrations of liturgy remains uncertain, so we are again facing awkward questions of how to mark days of obligation and keeping the day of the Lord holy. The pandemic has created a hunger among the faithful for the communal element of the liturgy. The Diocese of Hong Kong recommends the faithful participate in the rite of Ashes and the liturgy online and receive the Holy Communion spiritually.
Two years ago, when the liturgical celebrations were suspended for the first time, we heard stories of families who would put on their Sunday best for virtual Mass: all members of the family participating with singing, responding aloud, even standing and kneeling. However, now people speak of attending live-streaming of the Mass while cooking breakfast or taking a bus or train and then considering their obligation fulfilled! Let our Lenten observances not merely be limited to fulfilling obligations.
“Obligation” implies something to be checked off a list or gotten out of the way. But, liturgical worship is supposed to be a joyous celebration of God’s closeness to us. Virtual participation creates a temptation to passively “watch the Mass.”
Of course, this passiveness is not exclusive to virtual liturgical celebrations. When someone attends Sunday Mass merely to fulfill the obligation, they do nothing but “watch the Mass” or “hear the Mass”! In the Mass, the Church invites her children to offer themselves at the altar as members of the priesthood of the baptised. Never forget that Jesus commanded his apostles to “Do this,” not watch this, “in memory of me.”
Therefore, it is crucial to participate in the liturgy, even when not around the altar and with the community. This Lent reminds us to transform our virtual liturgy into a “full, active and conscious participation” [Sacrosanctum Concilium, Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy of the Second Vatican Council] through our works of charity, almsgiving, prayer and fasting.
In his Lenten message last year, Pope Francis said “As Christians pray, fast and give alms during Lent, they also should consider giving a smile and offering a kind word to people feeling alone or frightened because of the coronavirus pandemic.” The crisis teaches us to be ‘increasingly concerned with one another, “speaking words of comfort, strength, consolation, and encouragement.” jose, CMF
