CARY, N.C. — All of Holy Week is an important time for the Catholic Church and for Father Michael Burbeck.
“It's more for us than just remembering past events,” Burbeck said. “It's really an entering into those events so that they become real for us now, and we become, in a sense, present to them even across the years in between.”
Burbeck has been a priest for nine years, but he’s been at St. Michael of the Archangel Catholic Church for three. Most of that has been during the pandemic, but he says he’s seeing many people returning to his services.
“The church was packed and there is a feeling of sort of a new springtime,” Burbeck said. “And that sense of gathering and community, being able to worship together, feels not even like normal, but maybe even stronger than it was before the pandemic.”
For Good Friday, Burbeck’s church had a prayer service, Stations of the Cross and service of the Lord’s passion — all with a great turnout. He says his goal is to share God’s love with his community through this sacred celebration.
“So the resurrection is for us proof that all of those things, those elements of darkness, don't have the last word, but instead the love of God does,” Burbeck said.
He says it’s important for people to find hope in the midst of the tragedies that surround us in the world every day.
“For me, this is a week of great hope on both sides,” Burbeck said. “So there's always the hope of having visitors, having people come who aren't regularly here. And we hope certainly that they find here a loving community that makes them want to come back. But there's also the hope of the events themselves, right? So to know that you are loved even by a human person gives hope and meaning to life.”
Burbeck says he is looking forward to the Easter celebrations that come after the heaviness of Good Friday. Churches all across the state are preparing for an influx of visitors on Easter Sunday.
