22 Apr holy week online/chile
The profound and joyful certainty that the Eucharist is life… and the limitless desire to “place Christ for the adoration of the peoples” inspires us each day, and it did so in a new way during this Holy Week in the midst of the pandemia.
In Chile, a few weeks away from the beginning of the academic year, the Corona virus sent us into lockdown, and in Tajamar, as in the other communities, we felt that all possibilities of beginning the new pastoral year were suspended and frustrated. We were lamenting this, when our close friends with whom we share life and the Eucharist encouraged us to meet and celebrate together, even in the midst of the difficulty and the lockdown. We talked about it in community and decided to take turns preparing the celebrations of Palm Sunday and the Holy Week Triduum.
In the afternoon or at midday, it was wonderful to get in front of the computer to meet with some 20 families from different places in Santiago. United via “broadband” we celebrated Jesus in his entrance into Jerusalem, blessing our branches long-distance, sharing the Word and the Bread also on Holy Thursday and the Paschal Vigil.
During the week WhatsApp came alive with communications, flyers, reminders, organization, with each one signing up to do a reading, a prayer, etc. One of our friends took care of all the technical work and arranged everything carefully so that no one would remain unconnected, even the older people for whom it was difficult to enter into this style of celebration. We could even count on a priest friend who presided at the Paschal Vigil for us from his home.
In each celebration we received the Eucharistic Jesus in communion and they… simply the bread in each home that, because of their desire, no longer was merely bread; in some way Jesus became present, I am certain.
It was very beautiful to listen to how, through the marvels of technology, voices from different homes and places were heard reading the Word, lifting up in prayer and song, and adoring Jesus by means of the monitor…the blessed monitor that became sacramental…
The lockdown continues, and we want to continue to meet as a family, brothers and sisters who accompany one another and grow in the faith. We will continue this way because it has made us more certain that Jesus in the Eucharist is the root of our tree and of every tree.
Clauida Muñoz, aci
