Burmese Catholics pray for stricken homeland at start of Holy Week

Mary Lian, a member of St. Mark the Evangelist Parish in Indianapolis, holds hands while praying during an April 12 Mass at Roncalli High School in Indianapolis. Burmese Catholics in the archdiocese gathered at the liturgy to pray for their home country of Myanmar, which was struck by a major earthquake on March 28. (Photo by Sean Gallagher)

By Sean Gallagher

It could be said that the Burmese people of Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) have been on their own long Way of the Cross.

COVID-19 struck the southeast Asian country as the pandemic swept around the world in 2020. A year later, the country’s military took power in a coup, sparking an ongoing civil war. Major flooding caused great destruction a year ago.

And on March 28, a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck Myanmar, killing more than 3,300 people and injuring more than 4,800.

At the start of Holy Week, some 250 Burmese Catholics living in the archdiocese gathered with Archbishop Charles C. Thompson at Roncalli High School in Indianapolis to pray for the suffering country in a Palm Sunday Mass.

Most of the Burmese Catholics living in the archdiocese have moved to Indianapolis after fleeing religious and ethnic persecution in Myanmar. Most of them are members of St. Barnabas, St. Mark the Evangelist and St. Pius X parishes, all in Indianapolis.

Father Luigi Hla Shwe, a Burmese priest serving as parochial vicar at St. Pius Parish, reflected on the suffering Myanmar is experiencing in light of the Hebrew people of Jesus’ time who sought help from God that would lead them to freedom from Roman oppression—a desire evident in the account of Christ’s passion proclaimed during the Mass.

Father Shwe preached his homily in Burmese and provided a translation of it to The Criterion.

“Like the people of Jesus’ time, some of us are standing in that same place right now,” he said. “We cry out, ‘God, where are you? When will you show up? When will you move in my life, in the life of my family, in this world?’ ”

But just as God in Jesus answered the cries of the people 2,000 years ago in a way they didn’t expect, Father Shwe invited his listeners to be open to God’s mysterious ways now.

“God doesn’t ignore our desperation. He moves toward it. But He doesn’t always bring the rescue we expect. He brings the rescue we need. Sometimes we ask God to show up in a specific way—and when he doesn’t, we think he’s not working. But maybe God is doing something better than we imagined. Just different.”

In remarks at the end of the Mass, Rita Hwin, a Burmese Catholic who serves as a pastoral associate at St. Pius Parish, expressed the Burmese Catholic community’s gratitude for Archbishop Thompson coming to pray with them.

“Your presence and unwavering support provide us with hope and remind us that we are not alone on this difficult journey,” Hwin said. “ … Myanmar has lost so much, yet its people remain resilient and unshaken in spirit. Together, let us continue to pray, hope, support each other, and act. Thank you all for being here tonight again, and for caring so deeply for our homeland.”

Assisting at the Mass was archdiocesan seminarian Khaing Thu, a Burmese Catholic who is a member of St. Mark the Evangelist Parish in Indianapolis.

“I felt a lot of hope in just being here,” said Thu after the Mass. “Being here, united in prayer, just shows how much we are connected. Even though we may be separated physically, we feel very close spiritually to our own people here in the states, but also those in Myanmar, especially those who are suffering.”

Angela Dim, a St. Mark parishioner who was resettled in Indianapolis in 2009, had mixed feelings as she came to the Mass at Roncalli.

“I feel happy that we have the opportunity to pray together for the people of Burma,” Dim said. “This is what God wants. We are uniting our hearts together to pray together for Burma. We feel so happy about that.”

Yet she also came with a heavy heart.

“It’s just so emotional,” Dim said. “We cannot help them. We feel so worried every day about what will be next, what will be the next bad news. But even though we suffer in this way, God knows everything. Everything is in God’s hand.”

In an interview with The Criterion after the Mass, Archbishop Thompson noted that it was fitting that the Burmese Catholic community gathered to pray for its suffering country at the start of Holy Week.

“We unite our suffering with Christ and, through him, with those in Myanmar and beyond,” he said. “They’ve known suffering. But they’re people of great faith, of great hope, of great passion for the Gospel.

“As much as they’ve suffered in adversity, they also continue to be persevering in their faith. They don’t let the cross get the best of them. They continue to look beyond it to the empty tomb and the resurrection.” †