Easter

When do you set up your Christmas tree? Or better yet, when do you take down your Christmas tree? You might think what odd questions to ask to begin an article on Easter. Well, I wonder if the answers to these questions might reveal something about the importance of Easter in your mind and heart. Follow me here … Obviously Christmas and Easter are extremely important to Catholics and their observance of Catholic traditions within the church. But have we let others, outsiders of the church, drive our actions, and, therefore, our understanding and beliefs toward two of the most holy and sacred events of our liturgical year?
 
The danger is that no matter how good our intentions are, our actions speak louder than our intentions, and our children and grandchildren pick up on them and are guided and molded by them. We wonder then why some of them fall away from the church when they don’t see us emphasizing that Jesus is the reason for both seasons. Back to the original questions. Does the end of Thanksgiving mark the beginning of Christmas season for you because the retailers of the world lay down their grandiose ‘Christmas is Upon Us’ push? Do we really need to break out the red and green flood lights, reindeer, and blow-up Frosties when we haven’t even finished Ordinary Time or begun Advent?Why do we do it? And don’t say it’s because you’re already in the storage shed picking up the turkey decorations because if that is the excuse why are we tossing our Christmas trees out before New Year’s Day? Please don’t say it’s because you’re already in the storage shed getting ready for Mardi Gras, lol! The most likely reason seems to be we are letting pagans determine our liturgical seasons like mules led by nose-rings.

And it doesn’t seem to be quite as disjointed, but do advertising for chocolate bunnies and gold brick eggs drive your mental presence of Easter? If so, don’t expect the leaves to fall far from your trees. I am no more innocent of these practices than the next good Catholic. Easter egg hunts and mounds of candy were the meaning of Easter for me as a child and that was with a saintly mother. And, of course, that is not an entirely bad thing when we are children. But we need to grow up. We are now the molders of young minds, and controllers of liturgical seasons within the home.

Both Christmas and Easter are indispensable for Catholic understanding and appreciation of the Paschal Mysteries. But the Catholic Encyclopedia says, “Easter is the principal feast of the ecclesiastical year. Pope Leo the Great calls it the greatest feast and says that Christmas is celebrated only in preparation for Easter. It is the center of the greater part of the ecclesiastical year.” If we are going to make the break this year from secularism driving our liturgical seasons, we need to grow from childhood knowledge and ways to big boy and big girl knowledge and ways. It’s called spiritually maturing.

Why is Easter this most important feast of the Catholic liturgical year? Easter represents the fulfillment of God’s promises to mankind. It is so important because all of Christianity revolves around the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. If Jesus did not die for our sins and rise again after three days in the tomb, then the entire Christian faith would be empty. The entire Christian hope would be based on lies like straw and twigs. If Jesus did not resurrect from the dead, then heaven would not be open, and Christians would be like Jews waiting for the Messiah to come. Christianity would be a fable, a fabrication, a fairy tale. Don’t take my word for it, here is St Paul, “But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that he raised Christ whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. ... If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:13-15,17).

Brethren, death is death, but Jesus’ resurrection conquered death. Because of his resurrection, heaven is open, and that is the best reason for Easter to be the greatest celebration of the year.

Like most of our Catholic feasts they are not limited to only one day. We celebrate entire liturgical seasons so please don’t stop saying Happy Easter the day after Easter. Easter day only begins the season and lasts for seven weeks ending with Pentecost and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit onto the Blessed Virgin Mary and the apostles. It is a time when Jesus walked the earth in his resurrected body. Stress that and make that known to your children and grandchildren who are thirsting for superheroes. Teach them the names of the twelve apostles as the most courageous men ever to live, and don’t fall for it that they can’t remember their names because I promise they can name every Marvel Avenger. It’s time we take back not only our liturgical seasons from those brainwashing advertising giants, but we promote our real-life heroes; firstly Jesus Christ in the flesh and his holy family of Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph, the protector of the holy family, the most chaste spouse, and the terror of demons; and secondly, the lives of the apostles and all the saints and martyrs. That’s how St. Ignatius of Loyola grew from spiritual infant to a spiritual giant. He read about real heroes, and it captivated him.

These are your marching orders: Stop throwing out your Christmas tree on December 26. Give up promoting Santa, Rudolph, and the Easter bunny. Grow in spiritual maturity, and most of all don’t let anyone else define Easter for you.

(Father James Rome is the associate pastor at St. Bernadette Church parish in Houma.)