Tuesday of Holy Week
Mass after the Key Bridge Collapse
Cathedral of Mary Our Queen
March 26, 2024
Less than 24 hours ago, this very Cathedral was packed with faithful from across the Archdiocese to celebrate our annual the Chrism Mass. In the midst of that joyful celebration, little could we have imagined the tragedy that would unfold four hours later, while most of us were asleep, as the cargo ship Dali unexpectedly hit the Key Bridge leading to its collapse. And so it is that we gather once again in this Cathedral church.
Gathered together, our minds turn first and foremost to those whose lives were lost and the loved ones who are facing this unthinkable and unexpected news. While we know that our lives are fragile, a moment such as this reminds us what can change in but an instant. In the charity of our prayers tonight, we lift up these souls, those who have gone and those who remain, to the Lord of life and love.
In the days and weeks to come, many others will be impacted by this collapse. Seafarers from across the globe, people who already labor under incredibly difficult conditions, are now stranded here in Baltimore. Many men and women throughout our region whose livelihoods depend on our port who are filled with fear and uncertainty as they look at the road ahead.
To be sure, in ways great or small, this will cause a difference to our day-to-day life for many for years to come. Communities across our region that will be impacted by the severing of this vital transportation link. It is often the case that when tragedy strikes, we are shaken from our normal way of seeing things; our hearts are moved to think of those who are impacted and suffering. But as time goes by and the normal demands of daily life impose themselves upon us, it is easy for us to forget this experience and to forget those whose lives will not go back to normal. Perhaps tonight as we ask ourselves, “what can I do in response to this tragedy?” Let me propose two things:
1. Prayer – Pray for those who were lost, pray for those who survive them, pray for those whose lives and livelihoods are impacted by this collapse. But resolve to pray each day for those who suffer, those whom we do not know; those who face challenges and difficulties we will never understand.
2. Charity – Growing up, I many of us were taught not to go to bed angry or never to leave home without telling our family that we love them. We know not the time or the hour when we will be called from this world. So tonight, let us resolve to love those the Lord has placed in our life and to let them know how very much we love them . . . never sure when the Lord may call them to himself. In God’s grace, let us resolve to live our lives in love, embracing with patience the challenges or difficulties this event may cause in our own daily life. To accept and offer up these small things for those who bear heavier burdens than we.
One final thought: This tragedy happens in the midst of Holy Week as we recall the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Tonight, we bring the pain and sorrow of all those who are suffering to the foot of Cross, the Cross which is our only true and lasting hope, the Cross which redeems all human suffering and loss, transforming it and filling it with the power to save, to lead us closer to the Lord and to one another, the Cross which shows us God’s willingness to enter into our own pain and suffering that he might conquer it by the power of his love.
As people of faith, we must also be people of hope, a hope rooted in the greatest fact of all of history: Jesus Christ is Risen from the dead. Tonight, even as we mourn those who were lost, we give thanks for those who survived, those who were rescued, and we continue to pray for them and their health and well-being. As we look upon the Cross and witness the sorrow and tragedy of this day, let us not lose sight of the hope that is ours: Jesus Christ risen from the dead, and our sure and certain hope that, with him, we too will rise again.