Bishop urged public to look to Christ

By Dolly Yasa

BACOLOD City – Bacolod Diocese Bishop Patricio Buzon reminded the people to “look to Christ” as the Catholic faithful mark the beginning of Holy Week on Palm Sunday, April 5, 2020, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) crisis)

In his Palm Sunday message, Buzon recalled the homily of Pope Francis to the victims of typhoon Yolanda in Tacloban City, where the latter stated “that so many of you have lost everything, some of you have lost family members, all I can do is keep silence.”

“Let us look to Christ, He responds with His heart from the cross, He understands because He underwent all the trials that [we] experienced,” Buzon said.

The bishop told the Catholic faithful to bring their questions to Jesus and the cross, as He too has experienced our insecurities, doubts, our helplessness, fears, and abandonment.

“Feeling forsaken by all, He too asked why? My God, My God why have you abandoned me?”

Buzon said this extremely difficult situation brought by the virus makes the observance of the Holy Week even more meaningful.

He urged everyone to make this Holy Week more than just a ritual “we go through each year, but the real experience of following Christ and carrying our own cross to our Calvary.”

He also asked everyone to use the days in prayer and reflection.

“The imposed enhanced community quarantine affords us with much time to pray, let us pray for the world, for our country, for our diocese, and for all our loved ones.”

Buzon also asked the faithful to pray for the frontliners, particularly those in the medical sector, who have heroically sacrificed their own lives to save ours.

“Let us make this Holy Week, truly holy by uniting ourselves with the Lord in his passion and death, as we bear the inconveniences and the sacrifices that this pandemic has brought upon us,” he said. “If at times we feel like we are abandoned even by God himself, let our faith prevail and let us rise above our feelings. Christ did not stay in his feeling of abandonment, but surrendered himself with full trust to his Father saying ‘into your hands I commend my spirit,” he added.