Happy Easter, everyone! In this time of upheaval and uncertainty, may we always put our trust in the Risen Jesus.

Normally around this time, my friends, we’d be preparing for (or would already have experienced) many “rites of passage.” First Communions. Confirmations. Weddings. Graduations. This week, we would have been celebrating ordinations to the priesthood here in Boston. (It has since been moved to August.) We feel many things in times like these. Frustration. (“I was so looking forward to this.”) Perhaps anger. (“I’m really upset that I am being denied this.”) Perhaps fear. (“When, if ever, will things return to normal?”) Even a sense of dislocation, that we are not where we should be right now. (“I should be walking down the aisle at my wedding right now.” “I should be enjoying these last carefree days of high school with my friends at the beach, or at a party.” In general, a sense of “I should be anywhere but where I am right now, social isolated in lockdown.” Even if Gov. Baker eases restrictions, it will only happen in phases. It will not be an immediate return to large social gatherings — graduations, weddings, parties, not to mention the most important gathering, the celebration of the Mass — but rather a gradual easing of restrictions. This is prudent, especially given the nature of the virus and how easy it is to contract and spread. Stoughton has been particularly hard-hit. We have one of the highest rates of infection in the Commonwealth. (In the last release of figures, Stoughton was hovering around the top ten.) I personally have performed burial services at the rate of three or four a week, with about 1/3 having died from coronavirus. (Please keep the families of the deceased in your prayers. I am sure you can imagine how difficult it is at this time when the normal rites and rituals — the vigil (wake), the funeral Mass — which bring such comfort, are not able to be celebrated in the usual way.) And so, my friends, we are feeling many emotions; frustration, dislocation, anger, fear. But perhaps the most predominant one, whether we know it of not, is grief.

There was an interesting article in the Harvard Business Review several weeks ago. Its title was “That Discomfort You’re Feeling is Grief.” (https://hbr.org/2020/03/that-discomfort-youre-feeling-is-grief). We’re grieving what we have lost — for starters, a sense of normalcy and control — and for our uncertain future, what we fear losing. This is a very strange and unsettling way to be. Think of those first few days, weeks, and months after you have lost a loved one, how surreal and unpredictable they are. Grief is a wily sort of animal. It hits, hides lays in wait, and then hits again when we least expect it. People often ask me after a loved one has died, “Father, what should I expect?” I often tell them, “It usually gets worse before it gets better. But it does get better.” That is the beauty, the hope of our faith in the Lord. Even when things seem to be going from bad to worse, they always turn around. There is a Resurrection for every Good Friday. And when we come through the other side, we have a wisdom and a sense of gratitude and perspective that we might not have had before. I encourage all of us to open our hearts to this. Now, more than ever, may we all keep the faith. May we keep the faith through these difficult times — it will be a great source of strength, I assure you — and may we keep the faith in another way, too; keep praying, keep watching the Mass, keep all that our Catholic faith teaches us so that we will not fall away from the faith but return with an even greater force in the future. May God bless all of you and your loved ones. “Keep the Faith."

A turtle was crossing the road when two snails mugged him. The police showed up and asked the turtle what happened. “I don’t know,” the turtle replied. “It all happened so fast.”