Easter people?

Easter people?
By Jerome Placido
April 12, 2010





Since the official week long celebration of the Resurrection of the Lord is over now, what happens now? I recall listening to the pastor of my old parish always urging people to continue living as an “Easter People.” I never actually understood, nor tried to understand, what exactly what he meant. But this week I’ve come to a new and deeper love for our faith and especially the highlight of that faith, the Resurrection of Our Lord.

Think of the preparation we make for the coming of Easter and you will get a sense of its importance, which sometimes we may forget with a bad case of spiritual amnesia. We spend forty days in preparation for it. Forty days of deeper prayer, penance and mortification. In that we are to renew our sorrow for our sins and so to approach God humbled and aware of who He is and who we are.

But why go through all the trouble? We embrace our crosses and walk with Christ to Calvary so as to appreciate, understand and LOVE his Resurrection, and the hope for sharing in His Resurrection. When we’ve prepared well we then not only approach Easter with hearts ready and willing, but we carry that Easter spirit with us in our hearts.

Being Easter People means being living signs of the hope which Christ’s Resurrection brings to the world. It means that our mere presence and attitudes radiate the beauty of this new life in Christ and then everyday becomes a day we celebrate and rejoice in His Resurrection. It was as if all of mankind, even all of creation, was waiting in anticipation to see how God’s love and mercy would unravel itself after the fall of our first parents. Finally after seeing an empty tomb and our risen Lord, the whole world let out one great sigh of relief and shout of praise for it realized how good God really was.

The solemnity and glamour of Easter may be not as evident in our liturgy, our decorations maybe down and the Easter eggs may have already been emptied, but it’s a celebration we should carry daily in our hearts for the Lord is truly risen ALLELUIA.