Dear Hoban Family,

The significance of Holy Saturday, the time between Christ’s death and his resurrection, is commonly unobserved in Christian life. This Holy Triduum, however, it digs to the bone of our current experience of being in the throes of an international pandemic. It is a “silent waiting” between what’s happened and what’s to come. For Jesus’ disciples, it was a time of fear, confusion, and isolation. Their Master, the one they hoped would free Israel from Roman tyranny, was dead – a victim of capital punishment. And they, his followers, were now also suspect.

Every Holy Saturday is a waiting period for Christians that marks the transition from Calvary to the empty tomb. This year, that silent waiting is especially poignant. Our world has become a Holy Saturday. We share the disciples’ feeling of anxiety and abandonment as we are faced daily with rising death tolls and are forced to isolate from extended family, friends, and the sacraments and traditions that define Eastertide. Our seniors, the Class of 2020, are experiencing that sense of disillusionment most acutely having had so many dreams of their final days together dashed.

As a Holy Cross school, we at Hoban often pray with Blessed Basil Moreau, Ave crux, spes unica – “Hail the cross, our only hope.” I suggest those are precisely the words of consolation we need to hear right now. Looking back at Calvary through the lens of the resurrection, we know that there is purpose in our grief: For the Lord has wrought victory over death. Our community, our families, our students, and our seniors will endure through this incredible interruption and be even stronger. For the moment, we wait and we pray. Especially for those most vulnerable in this crisis.

As a Hoban Family, we live in hope and trust Divine Providence. He is Risen, and we will rise again. We wish our students and their families, our alumni, our Holy Cross educators, our friends in the communities we serve, and our benefactors, a very Happy Easter and a Blessed Easter season.

Yours in Christ and Holy Cross,

Dr. Tom Curry

President