Easter Sunday - April 16, 2017

  Looking back through some family pictures recently, I was remembering a tradition we had of celebrating Easter every year with my Uncle Bill and Aunt Bernie and my cousin Billy. One year they would come and visit us, and the next we would go to their house in Cleveland. (Yes, I have had relatives in Cleveland, though we usually do not talk about that fact.) What struck me about the photos is how dressed up we would get for that special day. That was when people would often get new clothes, and the ladies would be sure to get the best new hat for the occasion. Irving Berlin wrote a song called “Easter Parade” which celebrated “your Easter bonnet with all the frills upon it.”

Easter is a time for bringing out our best. That may in part be because it is springtime, when we feel renewed. But more importantly, it is because this is the day when God gives us His best. The Resurrection of Christ is the greatest event in all history, and this Easter day is the cornerstone of our entire liturgical calendar. Nothing else matches up to Easter as a day of joy.

The new clothes and fancy Easter bonnets (if anyone still wears Easter bonnets) are a sign of renewal. They are a reminder that Christ has changed everything. No longer are we slaves to sin. Christ has given us a share in His new life. The ultimate goal of our lives is to share in that new life, and that fact should be the starting point of every decision we make. Our new life in the Risen Lord is not only a hope for some distant future; it affects everything we do throughout our lives.

The importance of Easter was clear to the early Church. Scripture scholars believe that the earliest creeds, the statements of faith such as the Nicene Creed we use at Mass, were simple statements of the Paschal Mystery of Christ’s passion, death and resurrection. One example might be from St. Paul in I Timothy 3:16, that Christ “was manifested in the flesh, vindicated in the spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed to the Gentiles, believed in throughout the world, taken up in glory.” The early Church also celebrated Easter every Sunday, and the special annual celebration of Easter as a major feast would have gained prominence when other feasts started to find their place on the calendar.

Today we do not see many Easter bonnets, but we do still have the eggs, which are a sign of new life, and the Easter Bunny, as we know that rabbits can be a sign of new life. We bring back flowers in the sanctuary after keeping our church looking more barren during Lent. We sing the “Alleluia” again after not using that joyous word for the season of Lent. We also sprinkle everyone with Holy Water, not as a way of watering the flowers on any Easter bonnets we may see but as a way of reminding ourselves of our baptism by which we share in this mystery. As we rejoice this day, I hope we can always remember just how important this day truly is. On behalf of Fr. Russell and the entire staff of St. Malachy Parish, I wish you a very blessed and joyous Easter.

                                                                                       Father H