Dear brothers and sisters!
There is a great significance in the resurrection that must be understood this year. In the resurrection of Jesus Christ we have felt His nearness: at the Lord's Supper and at His cross; and we have experienced the silence of the tomb in our churches.
The Masses took place without the gathering of God's people around Christ, but we always felt His presence because the grace of Christ strengthened us through the Masses online and the Sacraments. For a Catholic, the Church is never an empty space, even if nothing happens there, but the Lord is always present! The church is not only a gathering place for the people, it is a real meeting place for God and man, as we read on the facade of our cathedral: Hic vere est Domus Dei (here really is the house of God).
The restrictions imposed by the Government of the Republic of Estonia are gradually easing. Already a week and a half ago, along with other Christian churches, we proposed to open churches on Sunday, May 2, but the government did not agree and the churches will be open to the Mass on May 3, 2021. Now we stand for a new period. We can gather more and more in churches, but probably for a long time with restrictions.
We have lived in this situation for over a year, and it is understandable that a certain amount of fatigue is beginning to occur with despair. We are increasingly tormented by this question: why does this situation have last for so long time? Perhaps there is a similar mood within us that sisters Martha and Mary experienced when their brother Lazarus became seriously ill and they called Jesus, "Lord, behold, your friend is sick," and they were waiting for Him but Lazarus was already dead (John 11: 1-45). Martha and Mary put all their hope and joy on Jesus, but when Jesus came, they couldn't show much of their joy, because they thought Jesus came too late, and even a small rebuke came from Martha's mouth: "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not be dead”.
Something like this may happen to us that when we think Jesus is late, we do not heal quickly enough what is grieving us in our lives or in the world, we lose patience, hope, or joy, and when the Lord finally appears, we feel like Martha that the Lord has let us wait too long. But God's logic is different from ours. Jesus arrives when Lazarus is already dead, but He calls His disciples to believe "this sickness is not death, but the glory of God" (John 11: 4). Lazarus was already dead by the fourth day, those present were no longer expecting anything, and they mocked Jesus "could not he that opened the blind eye make him dead?" (John 11:37). But Jesus cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth," and death was replaced by life, for Jesus has overcome death.
Dear brothers and sisters, Jesus is now coming to Bethany, to us, to our lives, to our homes. There is another opportunity to receive Him in the sacraments, to participate in the Mass, which is truly His sacrifice, to gather around His altar, to rebuild the life of our churches as Lazarus rebuilt his life when he came out of the tomb, to start our Sunday schools and other activities. It will not be easy, and Jesus Himself must help us as He helped Lazarus "Release him, and let him go" (John 11:44). But the joy of raising Lazarus from the dead must now reign in our hearts, not the initial sorrow of Martha and Mary "If you had been here ...". The Lord is here, let us receive Him with all joy and confidence, even though the fears of the present situation still bind us as Lazarus had "his feet and his hands bound" (John 11:44). One concrete way to free yourself from grief and sadness is to join Pope Francis's initiative and call to continually read the Rosary in May, in unity with the shrines of Mary in the world and praying for an end to the pandemic. In a similar way, Pope Pius V called on Catholics in 1571 to pray the Rosary to remove the greatest danger in Europe at that time, the Turkish invasion. And this threat stopped abruptly and definitively in Lepanto, Greece. Now the Pope is asking us all to pray for the end of a pandemic and for this virus to disappear from the world. Let us respond with our prayer to the Pope's call in May - Omnes cum Petro ad Jesum per Mariam (all with Peter, to Jesus, through Mary)!
+ Bishop Philippe Jourdan
27 April 2021