REAGAN VOETBERG

Happy Easter!

This might seem late to some of you, but those of us that follow the liturgical year get a full seven weeks to celebrate. Not to mention, our Christian friends in the East just celebrated Easter last Sunday.

I like the Greek Orthodox greeting that’s used during Eastertide: “Christos Anesti!” (Christ is risen!), to which we respond, “Alithos Anesti!” (Indeed He is risen!). Someone I knew in college said when he traveled to Greece during Eastertide the natives greeted everyone that way.

My conception of Easter is one of those foundations that changed with my conversion to the Catholic Christian faith from a non-denominational background. I would now say it is one of my favorites, if not my most favorite holiday. Whereas several years ago it was near the top of the list just because it’s about Jesus.

The way my family celebrated Easter growing up was not bad by any means. When I look back now, it just seems boring and uninspiring. In some cases there’s nothing wrong with boring–we do not need more mega church over-the-top Easter entertainment shows–but there’s a way to be less boring and still honor God.

My family and I never really followed the Lenten practice of fasting leading into Easter. It wasn’t discouraged; we just didn’t do it. Although, I remember asking my Dad about it once and him saying something along the lines of, ‘if I want to give something up I should introduce something good, like prayer, in its place’. I never gave anything up, so apparently I didn’t like the tradeoff.

Palm Sunday was acknowledged on the day of, and there was maybe a sermon relating to it, but nothing more than that. I barely knew what Maundy Thursday was. Good Friday was important to us, but we didn’t celebrate it in any memorable way. I don’t recall going to any Good Friday services.

On Easter Sunday, we opened Easter baskets, ate candy, dressed a little nicer than usual for church, and had a special dinner. We often spent Easter with my Dad’s side of the family.

Our church always had an Easter breakfast before the service started, and I looked forward to that. The service itself was pretty standard–a sermon and worship music–except the pastor focused more on the meaning of the resurrection.

Easter was a one day celebration each year that came and went without much fanfare. Vital to our Christian faith, yes, but nothing to lose sleep over.

Now I like to say, you’ve never done Easter right until you’ve experienced a Catholic Easter–although I’ve heard the way the Orthodox churches celebrate is pretty cool too, but I digress–and you should attend your local Catholic church’s Easter Vigil at least once in your life. And it is something to lose sleep over.

To fully experience a Catholic Easter you have to start with Lent, and really lean into it. Don’t just give up soda or sweets because that’s what most people do–give up something that’s difficult, something that feels like such a necessity in your life that it challenges you (which could be soda or sweets for some people). Then, like my Dad once told me, replace it with something good, like praying intentionally three times a day, or whatever seems right to you.

Lent is a reflection of Jesus’s forty days in the desert. Walk beside Him in the desert, speak to Him and pray with Him there. When it’s challenging to fast, remember that He too fasted, and he is close to you in that place.

I think there’s an aversion to Lent in some Christian communities because of a misconception that fasting is doing a good work to earn one’s salvation. It’s true that fasting takes work. It won’t earn salvation, but it will help you to become more like Christ and grow in relationship with Him if you allow it to.

When Holy week begins on Palm Sunday, add something to your fast. It doesn’t have to be huge, just something that will allow you to focus more on the last week of Christ’s life before His death and resurrection.

Also, go to a Palm Sunday Mass. Not just for the palm leaf, but for the Gospel reading. It’s unique because you read through the whole Passion narrative. The Priest speaks the parts of Christ, there’s a narrator role, and a speaker role, and then everyone in the pews speaks the parts of the crowd–yes, the same crowd that shouts for Jesus to be crucified.

It’s beautiful, it’s humbling, and it puts you right in the story.

On Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday night, there are three services called the Triduum. This is where you have the chance to physically and spiritually enter into the mystery of Christ’s passion.

On Maundy Thursday, you enter into the Garden of Gethsemane and keep watch with Jesus. On Good Friday, you watch as He carries His cross to Golgotha and experiences His suffering and death through another reading of the Passion narrative.

Finally, on Saturday night at the Easter Vigil, you see Christ as He enters and defeats the darkness of sin and death by the light of the Easter candle.

If you engage your body and soul all through Lent and Holy week, the joy you experience at Christ’s resurrection on Easter is like no other. You might be surprised at just how much you anticipate next year’s Lent.

So enter the mystery. Engage with something new, or return to something you once knew.