AMID the Covid-19 pandemic, the National Shrine of St. Joseph in Mandaue City continued to celebrate the 382nd feast of St. Joseph the Worker through a virtual fiesta on May 8, 2020.
Cebu Auxiliary Bishop Midyphol Billones celebrated the Pontifical Mass of the feast of Mandaue City's patron saint, St. Joseph the Worker through Facebook Live.
In his homily, Billones said that similar to how people are facing a crisis today, St. Joseph was also a man who dealt with several crises in his life.
He stated three crises that St. Joseph faced based on the sacred scriptures.
The first crisis was his relationship with Mary found with a child. Billones said it would have been easy to succumb to the public perception of betrayal but Joseph chose to love Mary and Jesus.
The second was the birth of Jesus when he couldn't find a proper place for his child to be born in.
The third was when Joseph, Jesus and Mary fled to Egypt due to the threat to the life of his child.
"In all of these moments, we can see that our patron suffered crises just like us," said Billones.
"Happy Fiesta, we mean be assured of God's help through St. Joseph and by following his example, healing comes to our community," he added.
In an interview, Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes said this is the first time for Mandaue to celebrate the Pontifical Mass virtually.
Because fiesta activities were canceled, Cortes said the funds allocated for the activities were realigned and used for the efforts to fight Covid-19.
Meanwhile, though the National Shrine of St. Joseph was closed, there were still devotees who went to the church and paid their respects by lighting a candle.
Revive Ouano, 46, from Brgy. Guizo, Mandaue City, went to the church after buying groceries for their daily needs.
Ouano shared with SunStar Cebu that he prayed to the patron saint that the medical experts will disicover vaccines soon to fight Covid-19 so that everything will be back to normal.
SunStar Cebu also spotted at the church Letecia del Castillo, 50, from Brgy. Centro, Mandaue City, who wanted to attend the mass but was not able to get inside the church as it was closed.
She still attended the Pontifical Mass through Facebook Live while sitting outside the church.
These Mandauehanons shared to Sunstar Cebu that this year's fiesta is unusual because there are no activities and instead of a stage, they can only see ambulances and fire trucks in front of the city hall. (KFD)