Good Friday in a Buddhist Country

Everybody seems to be talking about Pope Francis.  He is really making his presence felt.  His latest initiative in going to a juvenie detention centre for Holy Thursday mass was quite something for a Pope.  Aljazeera highlighted that he washed the feet of 12 youth there - 10 male and 2 female, with one being a Muslim.   He is showing the way.  How many will follow? 

I like his line for Holy Week. 
"Living Holy Week means entering more and more into God's logic, the logic of the Cross, which is not first of all that of pain and death, but that of love and self-giving that brings life.  It is entering into the logic of the Gospel."

Well, that is Rome.  Here in Thailand, a Buddhist country, Holy Week means nothing at all to the masses and Good Friday is just another working day at the end of the week.  So the traffic is there waiting outside your door and if you were asked by a Thai friend about why you are going to church today, it might be just as easy to talk about getting on a flight to Mars.  While you can't buy an easter egg, you sure can buy a water pistol for the upcoming Thai New Year festival which is part religious but full-on water fights. 

This means that Holy Week and Easter are different here.  Take today, for example.  When I go to the cathedral for Stations of the Cross, I will have to face the working day traffic and everyone around me will be doing the usual work and shopping and business thing.  The Good Friday ceremony is on at 7.30 in the evening and not 3pm.  Maybe only little things but they make for a different feel. 

Following on in the example given by Pope Francis, the challenge is how to make your presence felt in such a context.  Being me and given my experience of life and culture here, it is not by hosting a grandiose liturgy which is the style here nor by remaining a quaint novelty for the locals' natural inquisitiveness.  It is rather by following the words and example of Pope Francis - entering into the logic of the Gospel.