Lent, fifth week,
a soul in silence, solitude,
an abysmal calm,
never experienced,
prayer, simple, silent,
life, simplified, lifegiving, generous,
priorities, relativized,
in a world standing aghast,
at immune-decimating high radiation,
zoogenic pandemic illness,
bio-viral genocide,
when life,
besieged, crippled, toxified,
pneumonic fibrosis,
many, in ICUs, bed after bed,
suspended,
between heaven and earth,
propped up by ventilators,
ebbs, melts, wastes away,
fragility lay nakedly bare,
expired, incinerated, ashes,
mass buried, loneliness, void.
Indefensible arrogance of scientifism, technocratism, urbanism
virus, lab cultured, for bio-warfare,
techno-high frequency electropollution,
extractive industries, agro-industries, urban residential expansion,
drastic reduction, destruction of animals’ habitat,
buffer zones for humans from diseased animals,
occasioned zoonetc illness,
SARS, MERS, Ebola, Covid-19
crushes lives, livelihood, economy, security of la massa,
with viral lethality, toxicity of power, mammon,
genocidal poverty, malnutrition, starvation,
no food, no healthcare, no money, no security,
death, incineration, mass-burial,
alone-loneliness, nothingness, void,
mournful silence.
Palm Sunday, March 29, 2020,
A suffering God in pain, in passion,
with the multitudes, the la massa, jobless, homeless,
single-parent families, migrants, refugees,
with the Son,
victim of shrewd politics of deception,
manipulation of polis,
framed, crucified for blasphemy, treason,
homicide, theocide,
agony, in abysmal desolation,
“My God, my God, Why have you deserted me?”
yielded up his Spirit,
received, welcomed, instantly
by Abba, looking on, with empathy on dying son:
“Abide in me, as I you, forever!!”
Holy Thursday,
A reclining meal,
everyday practice of the multitudes,
a Son, corporeally incarnated in earthly nutrients,
“This is my Body, my Blood,”
a divine, enfleshed, presence,
at the edges, frontline, margin,
subversive, ground-up, kenotic gesture,
bent over, feet-washing,
symbolic, deconstructive, dismantling, unmasking,
counter-hegemonic of mammon-driven,
divisive religiopolitical ideology,
clean-unclean, saved-unsaved, urban-rural, elites-masses,
iconic of a subversive God,
revolting defiance against Pharaoh,
freeing an enslaved people,
from grinding poverty, slavish labor,
on a treacherous long march,
eventual resettlement.
“Come, come, delegitimizes modern kyrachical structure,
in churches, religions, society,
liberate vulnerable womenkind, otherkinds,
today-future humankind.”
Good Friday,
Sandhedrin,
in outraged abhorrence,
Jesus’ imaging of a doulos-feet-washing-God,
a God, bodified, with Mother Earth,
I am bread of life, living water,
“Take, eat, drink of me!”
a God in meal-fellowship with prostitutes, sinners, taxcollectors,
blasphemous, idolatrous, sacrilegious,
“Crucify Him. Crucify Him.”
Holy Saturday
Earnest supplication:
“A new heart, a new spirit,
for humankind, otherkinds, Earth, Cosmos.
less radiofrequency radiation, electropollution
of Earth’s atmosphere, human immunity,
more contemplation, meditation, Sadhana, yoga,
mystagogical practices – imitation of Christ’s death, resurrection,
in affective awe, depth, gratuitousness, splendor.”
Empty tomb,
earth in violent earthquake,
descent of God’s angel, face illuminated,
“Mary of Magdala, Mary, mother of James,
He is not here! He has risen!!
Be His apostles, announce His resurrection,
to the Eleven, all kinds, on Earth, in Hades, Cosmos.”
Easter Sunday,
Ezekiel’s vision: valley of dry bones,
sinewed, enfleshed,
enlivened by God’s Spirit:
New heart, new Spirit, Alive in HIM,
life of eternity, insurrectional power,
ALIVE, bursting forth, unfettered by lockdowns,
in human creativity, ingenuity,
impromptu, spontaneous, bottom-up responses:
in families, doorsteps, rooftops, residence,
chorus of clappings, free movie-screening,
chants of ‘Wuhan jiāyóu’/‘add oil’, 武汉加油,Wuhan, keep up the fight,
Canto della Verbana/And While Siena Sleeps,
resounding in Tuscan streets, Siena, Italy,
Hamilton Community Actions, Ontario, Canada;
nations in aid of other nation,
boundless generosity of heart,
borderless medical services.
Emergency Financing for IMF-member nations,
address victims of a standstill-economy.
ALIVE as frontline doctors, nurses, in blue, green, white gowns, in ICUs, wards,
mart-workers, supply truck drivers, street-cleaners,
emergency, relief-aid workers,
amongst foodless, jobless, healthcareless, homeless, meal-less,
single-parent families, migrants, refugees.
ALIVE in a solitary black bird,
perching atop a twig,
atop a leafless, wintry tree,
in multi-color cherry blossoms,
abloom, adorning Sakura’s branches,
in yellow daffodils,
swaying their hips of petals in the breeze,
in a sun, aglow,
over the blue sky,
carpeted with cloudy cumulus,
bright cosmetic rays,
over the brick-walled façade of buildings,
the creepers-laced pebbly walls,
majestic, magnificent, mystifying,
initiatives of Mother Earth.
ALIVE, Ite Inflammate Omnia,
Rûah Elohim, inflaming Mother Earth, with resurrectional life,
purifying Earth’s viral ecocidal toxicity,
purging lethal pandemic affliction,
fashioning a new earth,
with a new heaven,
emerging forth a New Creation,
God, all in all, over all, through all,
forever all in all.
Fr Jojo M Fung SJ from Malaysia-Singapore Region is a Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford. He served as Coordinator of the Jesuit Companions in Indigenous Ministry of the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific for 20 years, from 1999 to 2019.