What a truly strange Holy Week this is. Passover Seders at home without large family gatherings and others welcomed to the table. Why is this night like no other? Why is this time like no other?

It is no accident that Easter and Passover occur so close together, year after year. For the faithful, the question is more, “Why is this time like no other?”

Passover is a celebration of liberation from tyranny and the way forward to freedom.

Easter is a celebration of liberation from the spiritual tyrannies of death and oppression.

We can rightly question how we will observe these dual festivals of liberation when the current plague has spent itself.

We will be left with many lasting images of these hard times. Images to inform and shape our way forward if we ever hope to make the sacrifices of these lives and livelihoods have meaning.

We must never forget the millions of people in our prison systems, for failing to make bail, for parole violations, for any number of non-violent “offenses.”

We must never forget the millions of people considered “essential” workers, but given no personnel protection equipment for sacrificing their lives at slave labor wages to keep us fed, keep gas stations open, transport supplies, working supply chains at every level.

Every one of these men and women are heroes and sheroes, as critical to keeping things going as first responders, fire department personnel, EMS workers, doctors and nurses, janitors and key staff. Those of us who have the luxury of staying home now, do this, so these countless heroes may eventually go home – alive.

While millions of people continue to put their lives on the line, to keep us fed, to keep us alive, to keep water flowing, garbage picked up, news reported and a myriad of basic every day functions that so many of us take for granted, $500 billion are about to be disbursed, without sufficient oversight, by a self-appointed king, who hides his tax returns behind five ideologically driven justices. His justice department is about to argue before these same ideologues that millions of us don’t deserve affordable, accessible healthcare.

We cannot let lives that have been lost, or lives we are about to lose, be lost in vain. Tyranny, in all forms, must still be fought.

We will only make this week Holy when we refuse to forget.

Rev. Elaine Silverstrim

Wilmington