Happy Easter everyone! Happy, happy Easter!!
I know what you are thinking. Easter was over seven weeks ago, why in the world are you wishing us Happy Easter? Well, for Catholics, Easter is not just a single day, but a whole season. Fifty days in fact.
From the Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year and the Calendar:
22. The Fifty days from Sunday of the Resurrection to Pentecost Sunday are celebrated in joy and exultation as one feast day, indeed as one “great Sunday.”
The joy of Easter, the joy of the resurrection is not to be limited to just one day. We celebrate for fifty days! This is not necessarily an excuse to feast on chocolate Easter bunnies and jelly beans for fifty days, but it does mean we celebrate! And we live our lives with the joy of Jesus in our hearts. The same joy in which Mary Magdalene felt as she ran to tell the disciples that she had seen the risen Lord on that first Easter morn.
Reflecting on the joy and excitement in which Mary rushed to the disciples is a self check for me. As a Christian, do I exuberate joy? Do I run to tell other the exciting news? Or am I living a lethargic Christian life? Am I a sour faced follower who puts her faith on the shelf and waits for someone to possibly stop by and look? I desire the first description, but I wonder with a shudder, if I’m actually closer to the last.
As you might have realized, the fifty days of the Easter Season – the joy and exultation of the one “great Sunday” – ends tomorrow with the feast of Pentecost. The good news is that every Sunday of the year is a commemoration of Easter Sunday, and we don’t have to put our joy on the shelf, for as Christians, we are an Easter people. Our lives should radiate the joy of the risen Christ, not just on Sundays or Easter, but every day! And we should be on fire, as the apostles were at the first Pentecost, so as to boldly proclaim the good news that Christ has risen. He is risen! He is risen indeed!!
So my closure and greeting are the same.
Happy Easter everyone!
Happy, happy Easter!!
Now run with joy and exultation to tell others.