THE musical “Jesus Christ Superstar” is one of the movies to watch during the Holy Week.
It presents the story of Jesus Christ’s suffering and death in a popular format, a musical, with the movie itself easy to access as it is available for free viewing on YouTube.
One of the songs in the American musical drama film that was based on the 1970s rock opera of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice was the song titled “Could we start again, please?”.
The movie was directed by Norman Jewison and co-written by Jewison and Melvyn Bragg. It shows the week before the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, his agony and arrest, trial and persecution and his death.
In the song, Mary Magdalene and one of the apostles reminisced about their short time with Jesus and asked to have another chance with him. “Could we start again, please?" was played as Jesus was thrown into prison after he was brought by guards before Pilate and Herod.
The sense that the situation was getting out of hand and people were becoming helpless are as relevant then as it is now.
The appeal for another chance is timely in this period of quarantine where people have limited access to food, medicine and other needs, their money fast running out and they are unsure as to when they can return to their former lives.
Some said the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic that is forcing countries to impose strict quarantine orders is a time for people to stay still, keep silent, reflect and surrender themselves to God’s power as only He knows when the emergency situation would end. In the reflections done for Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, Church leaders called on the faithful to use the quarantine period to reflect on their relationship with others and with God and to “reboot” their faith.
This “rebooting” is similar to restarting one’s relationship with God. Could we start again? Today is Easter. Easter gives the faithful that opportunity.
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The beauty of online Church services is that you can attend mass and the other activities in places where you have not been like the Vatican. I have listened to Pope Francis, heard his mass and received his blessings. I was not able to do any of that until the Covid-19 pandemic forced me to stay home and connect.
I attended a virtual Way of the Cross in a church in the Ilocos region and visited several churches in Metro Manila for the Visita Iglesia.
The breaking of physical barriers is also evident in prayers done together by family members regardless of what country they are in for as long as they agree on the time.
SunStar will stream live on its Facebook accounts the Easter Sunday mass of Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma at 6:30 a.m. You do not have to be at the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral to hear Palma.
(ninicab@sunstar.com.ph)