Matters India Reporter

Yangon, April 2, 2020 — In his Easter message in the age of Covid 19 pandemic and anxiety, president of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conference Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, Archbishop of Yangon, Myanmar sees a ‘resurrection in human solidarity.’

Cardinal sent out his Easter message prior to Holy Week starting with Palm Sunday on 5th April and proceeding to Paschal Triduum comprising of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

“These are dark days – a huge, suffocating cloud of fear and anxiety engulfs the whole humanity in the name of Covid 19,” says cardinal calling on faithful to hold on to their faith, hope and charity during these periods when “our faith in our certainties, hopes for the future, beliefs about God, and even faith itself are eclipsed.”

Half a million people are infected, more than 22,000 people have died and 200 countries are affected in the pandemic which started before Christmas. Italy has seen 63 priests and more than 20 doctors perishing in their service to the affected people.

“The Four Horsemen of Apocalypse seemed to have arrived,” cardinal wondered.

Four figures in the Bible’s Book of Revelation who symbolize the evils to come at the end of the world. The figure representing conquest rides a white horse; war, a red horse; famine, a black horse; and plague, a pale horse.

Cardinal compares Covid-19 a virtual Way of the Cross for humanity saying, “Thousands have been crucified to a cruel death by a viral organism that cannot be seen by eyes. Thousands have been walking an excruciating Way of the Cross in many countries.”

The 21 day lockdown imposed overnight in India had thousands of migrant workers hit the highways walking several days with their family and belongings on a long march to their home states, giving a vision of 1947 partition caused by refugee influx from India and Pakistan.

“We pray that thousands afflicted and walking in their way of the Cross, be strengthened by the faith that the Cross ends in Resurrection,” cardinal wrote.

The cardinal prayed, “May this Way of the Cross lead all nations to consign enmity and war to fire and, see resurrection in human solidarity. Now is the time for the Church to accompany the world in this resurrection to justice and human solidarity.”

He concluded saying, “Into that new world of human solidarity and love let a new Easter be born!”