A Personal Reflection -- Keep Austin faithful: Living the faith during crisis

By Father Paul-Michael Piega, S.T.L. | Columnist

Earlier this year I was excited and so looking forward to celebrating Holy Week at my first parish assignment –– St. Albert the Great Parish in Austin. We were planning meticulously for the Triduum, but during the first week of March, our lives changed in an instant. Suddenly, Lent, Holy Week, the Triduum and Easter season became very different as most of us in the Diocese of Austin were asked to stay at home and public Masses and gatherings were suspended.
I was ordained a priest of the Austin Diocese in 2018. I studied in Rome for six years (five years prior to my ordination and one year after), in the summer of 2019, I was assigned as parochial vicar of St. Albert the Great. I am grateful to have experienced the universal church and to have experienced the politics, culture and events in Italy for those six years. As COVID-19 began to spread, the call to prudent preparation kept coming up in my life in general and particularly in my prayer life.
When Italy was struck hard and basically shut down by the pandemic, I checked on my friends there. As Italian churches closed, my heart sunk knowing that the people of God were unable to receive Jesus, and I also began to realize the U.S. was not far behind.
No one could have expected the sudden fluidity of orders from the state of Texas and the Diocese of Austin, but we as priests knew we had to implement the various restrictions and precautions and ultimately continue to keep the faith with holy docility. Therefore, Father Charlie Garza, the pastor of St. Albert the Great, and I began to discern, pray and think of creative ways to keep our parishioners faithful to God and active in their faith. Many times over the last two months, I have experienced the miraculous faithfulness of our loving God! I firmly believe that if we simply put our trust in God, he will always provide.
The Holy Spirit helped us find many creative ways to help our parishioners: drive-through confessions, livestreamed Masses on our social media platforms, our #fillthepews selfie campaign, check-in with the collars livestream chat, prayer podcasts of the rosary, Liturgy of the Hours, the Divine Mercy Chaplet, #LegoHolyWeekATX, Zoom talks and our livestream Easter blessings. These are just a few of the ways we are trying to keep Austin faithful with God working through us.
Last year I was blessed with the opportunity to celebrate Holy Week in the Holy Land and relive the sacred liturgy in the holy sites themselves. I walked with Jesus as he entered Jerusalem from the East; I remained with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane on Holy Thursday, stood on Calvary, the Place of the Skull, on Good Friday, and finally experienced the joy of the Easter Vigil in the Holy Sepulcher, the actual tomb where our Lord Jesus Christ conquered death and rose again, just as he promised. What a difference a year makes!
This year Holy Week was quite strange and stupendous at the same time. I never expected my first Holy Week in a parish would be without the people of God in the pews.
On Palm Sunday, we waved our palms and tree branches virtually, welcoming the King of Kings and Lord of Lords into our own mini-Jerusalem and temples, namely our homes, the literal domestic church. Then during the Chrism Mass, my brother priests and I renewed our promises with Bishop Joe Vásquez digitally. Next, we journeyed with Jesus and his disciples on Holy Thursday, washing each other’s feet in our own upper rooms, recognizing we are called to serve God first and then one another, namely our own families.
Afterwards we adored Jesus in the tabernacles throughout the world, watching and waiting with him via
livestream. Usually on Good Friday, tabernacles are kept empty as we commemorate the emptiness of life without God, but this year Jesus was still present due to the adjustments made to this year’s Good Friday service. Jesus has persistently remained with us throughout this crisis, I thought as I contemplated the wood of the cross on which our savior died for all of us.
The Easter Vigil marked the end of our Lenten journey. Finally, on Easter via livestream we celebrated Christ’s triumphant conquering of death and we proclaimed “Alleluia, Christ is risen.”
In a time where the future is unknown and many of us do not have control over our own lives, we are left to ponder, question and think about the meaning of our life and the true meaning of being a Christian in our world today. For many of us, we are learning to let go of things and release control. We are learning to put our trust in God who ultimately intends only good for each and every one of us.
Currently we are living in solidarity with the first Christians who did not know their future and did not know that Jesus would rise again and yet, he did. How beautiful it is for all of us to seize this opportunity to grow in greater friendship and intimacy with the One who knew us before we were born and promises hope in the resurrection of our own bodies if we simply say yes to him each and every day. Even now in this crazy time, we must persevere in faith for we are an Easter people and alleluia is our anthem!