By John C. Favalora - The Archdiocese of Miami
My dear friends,
As reported elsewhere in this edition, the devotional chapel at St. Catherine of Siena Parish in Kendall caught fire the Friday before Palm Sunday.
To illustrate the hope that our Christian faith imparts to us at Easter � a celebration which continues for 50 days, until Pentecost Sunday � I would like to share with you a reflection written by St. Catherine�s pastor, Father Juan Sosa, just a couple of days after the fire:
The screams came from the people on the streets: �The church is burning!�
Our cook alerted the priests at the rectory. The firefighters arrived, the police set up the necessary control, and as the smoke and flames found their way through the north side of the church, all of us began to wonder: Why, and why before Palm Sunday?
Shortly afterwards we knew that although the fire began in the devotional chapel that housed the images of the Blessed Mother dear to many of our parishioners, as well as images of other saints, its effects were to be felt in the rest of the church space: the wooden roof, the pews, the carpet on the altar, the organ, the piano and the sacristy.
I may have tried to work out with our liturgical staff a slightly different way of celebrating Holy Week and Easter this year, but I never imagined that it would be this different!
Needless to say, such an event can make news in Miami very easily. Television crews and reporters focused on our parish community persistently throughout the weekend. As I watched each televised report, I noticed how reverently newscasters pointed out that this sad event took place �right before Palm Sunday� and that it would not deter the faithful from celebrating it with hope.
No one wants to see a church burning. For many of our parishioners, not only was their church in flames but also their hearts: a mixture of pain and confusion.
They know that bigger plans have been procured to expand the spaces of our buildings, to build a new church and to remodel this existing space, but they never imagined that a fire would snatch away from their lives the sacred space in which their children were baptized, celebrated first Reconciliation and first Communion, were married and even witnessed the burial rites of their grandparents.
Parishioners who attend church every week found themselves removed from their �space� of worship. Most of them, saddened by the news, came to me to let me know how sorry they were. We, the church, began to grieve.
But grieving is not the theme of Holy Week, nor should it be ours. As Archbishop Favalora told the 11 a.m. community on Palm Sunday, any inconveniences or sufferings must now be offered with those of Jesus on his journey to Calvary.
In mysterious ways, our parish family, as individuals and as a community, will enter into a process of death and resurrection and experience a deeper impact of the Paschal Mystery.
How will this affect them? How will it affect us? With great hope.
I am deeply grateful to the archbishop, the archdiocesan staff, our auxiliary bishops and the many priests who have called me to offer their help. I say to them what I can say to our faithful during these times of trial: Neither fire nor smoke will separate us from the love of Christ.
All of us will experience his risen life at Easter with passion and joy, although quite a bit differently (to say the least) from the ways we intended to do so at first!
Father Juan Sosa
Pastor, St. Catherine of Siena
John C. Favalora,
Archbishop of Miami
March 28, 2008
