During Mass at the Lord’s Supper led by Archbishop Charles Scicluna on Maundy Thursday evening at St. Paul’s Cathedral, Mdina, the Archbishop spoke about the circumstances of the pandemic that led to, for another year, Catholics not celebrating Easter Triduum in churches.

He stressed that although “human health is important and essential, we must also understand that the right to worship God is also essential; as essential as life. It’s not on the same level as lotto booths and supermarkets. Those can be essential to someone’s pockets and to buying what we eat, but today the Lord Jesus gives us food that we are in the prayer we have been taught to pray every day: ‘Give us the daily bread,’ not only what satisfies us physically, but also spiritually.”

The Archbishop said that no Catholic wants to celebrate again the Church’s greatest feast away from the churches: “Our patience has its limits, we cooperate as much as we can and can afford, but it cannot be that due to the negligence or the carelessness of some, we continue to pay such a high price, so cruel, that we cannot come together to celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus.”

The Archbishop invited Catholics to go to church on Good Friday, while obeying all health restrictions.

In an appeal to all those invited to receive the vaccine, the Archbishop said that it is a moral obligation of every Christian to think of the good of the neighbour, “we need to continue to make the last step, I hope, necessary. The neighbour needs to be vaccinated when called. I warn the Christian faithful and tell them that it is their moral obligation, a grave obligation, to do all that is necessary to be able to get rid of this serious disease, to prevent it, and not to pass it on to others. We need to wash each other’s feet this year by accepting the invitation to take the injection. Those who do not take it are not just doing it on their own, but are endangering themselves and others. That is not the spirit of Jesus.”

The Archbishop thanked the health authorities and the frontliners for “over the last year, with personal and enormous sacrifice, washing the neighbour’s feet by doing their duty.”

In the light of all this, the Archbishop conveyed a word of encouragement to Christians who are following the Easter Triduum celebrations from home: “to make his voice heard with respect and power, but at the same time, that in our homes, we truly yearn for the Eucharist, which the Lord Jesus has established today. The Lord Jesus is able to give us grace, especially in situations where we cannot physically approach Him, but He has chosen this holy sacrament so that we may be truly one with Him in holy communion.”

Photos / Video: Curia – church.mt/photos

Permalink: “While health is important, the right to worship God is essential” – Archbishop