When attending the sick in hospital emergency rooms, I have often been rather surprised at the cool way in which the staff, nurses and doctors, deal with appear to me to be very serious cases. Someone appears to be bleeding to death and the patient or bewildered relative is being asked "What is your mother's maiden name?"

Well, anyhow, one Good Friday after the Solemn Liturgy the people were venerating the Santo Entierro in the Church, they were coming up to kiss the image and take away the bit of cotton with which it was wiped. During my evening meal a frenzied delegation of the Catholic Women's League arrived from the sacristy. "What will we do Father, we are running short of cotton on this occasion. Where," I asked myself, "Could I get cotton on Good Friday evening when all the drug stores were closed?"

Yes, I knew where I could try - the emergency room of the hospital! I got on my motorbike and rather shyly presented my problem to the staff on duty. Well, it was as if the gun was fried to start a race in the Olympic Games. The whole hospital was galvanized into action, intercoms were buzzing from one department to another, and in matter of seconds I was loaded with the precious commodity.

Today, Palm Sunday, we begin holy week. The church offers us the great liturgies of Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday and the Easter Vigil. The Easter Vigil in which the story of God's love is told from the Creation to the Resurrection, and incorporating our own insertion into these mysteries through baptism is supposed to be the climax of all the year's celebrations. But the official liturgies seem to leave the people rather cold. It is the procession of the palms which are waved excitedly as they are blessed and then taken home, often without waiting for the Mass, that attracts the people. On Good Friday it is the Syete Palabras (seven last words), the Penetencia and the Santo Entierro (image of the dead Christ) that seem meaningful for people. The great Easter Vigil - the greatest liturgy of the year - is sparsely attended but people will rise at 4:00 a.m. on Easter Sunday morning to witness the Encuentor or Salubong (the meeting of Jesus and his Mother) of Easter morning. In this ceremony to separate processions, one carrying the statue of the risen Christ, the other of the Blessed mother totally veiled in black start out from the Church. When they meet, a small girl dressed as an angel is let down from the roof, sings the Regina Coeli and slowly removes the black veil of the Blessed Mother.

Prayer is relating with reality, the reality of here and now events and people; and the reality of an OTHER, a creator, a transcendent one beyond. It is clear that the ordinary people have great sense of the presence of that OTHER which the official liturgy - with its many words - is not capable of putting them in touch with. People experience much suffering in their lives. Pre-Christian animistic beliefs would have many believe that these punishment for past sins. This theology would say that the dead Christ has paid the price and placated the Father. We identify with his suffering and believe that it will give us deliverance. This is a kind of resurrection.
But it is the fatalistic resurrection - a resurrection that leads to coping rather than transcending.

If we can sit with the mysteries of Holy Week and let them talk to us in our silence we will find that resurrection means more than coping; it means acceptance and then letting go and starting off again full of new life. It brings us to a real living of life rather than just coping with life's problems. It will help us to maintain what is good and beautiful in the present celebration of Holy Week but also open us up to a deeper understanding and joy in the new life in this life and in the next that is the real message of the PASCHAL MYSTERY.