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Letter from Fr. Frankie for Easter Sunday 2020
11/Apr/2020
Easter Sunday 2020:When I was in boarding school, all those years ago, it was a long time after Christmas before we got home. The top of our study desks lifted up. The first days back we would make out a calendar, the days and weeks until the Easter break. Each night at the end of our study, we would cross out another day gone, another day closer to Easter to holidays going home and to freedom.
This memory has come back vividly to me. In this time of restriction and confinement. Thank God another day gone, crossed out, another day closer until we can be “Free again”. Freedom is the greatest longing of the human heart. These days we all know well that longing for freedom……
The longing of grandparents to put their arms around their grandchildren in that hug that says it all
· The longing of children (who don’t understand) to go out and play with their friends, for school and its rhythm of normality for them. “When will the virus go away” …. little boy asked his mother.
· The longing of young people in love for the first time………to meet their friends to hold hands and walk and talk and to sing and to dance their love for each other.
· The longing of those good people in charge to have good news to bring, to flatten the curve and to receive results.
· The longing of people of care, in hospitals and in the front line for a day off, or a weekend at home just to be a family.
· The longing of those who are in hospital to be discharged and to be free of the fear and to feel the wind and sun on their face again.
· The longing of those who are on their final journey, to hold the hand of a loved one , hear a prayer and kiss goodbye.
· The longing of those abroad and everywhere who just want to get home.
· The longing of all of us to go for coffee, visit a friend, to go to a match, have a meal, go for a swim or call on a neighbour.
· The longing of many people who come to their Church for Mass, to feel again a part of a community and receive again the gift of the Holy Eucharist.
· This longing of our heart is where Jesus lives at this time in us.
Jesus is that longing for freedom and for friendship; for kindness and for love; He is in that painful sacrifice we make each day to stay at home and to do nothing so we can literally save lives. Let us not squander these precious days when we can save the lives of others. Let it deepen in us a sense of the part that we can play in supporting those who work on the front line; to give us a great appreciation of what we already have and enjoy; to feel a great compassion for those who are suffering from the Covid—19 virus or any other illness.
This is the time when we are all asked to be heros and to save lives. (Fr. Frankie)