Rejoice, Christ is Risen! Alleluia, Alleluia

We have again made it to the most wondrous season of Easter. I always marvel at the fact, that on Ash Wednesday I think how far Easter is away, and when I get to Easter, I think how fast the Lenten season goes. It is a busy time around the parish and school. We have lots of extra Confession times during Lent, and usually we have other events going on as well. So, how did the Lenten fasting go? Hopefully, it went well and helped us to refocus ourselves.

For the last six weeks during the Lenten season, we have also fasted from using the word Alleluia. It is a word of rejoicing and praise and it is one of the few words that we do not translate. If it were translated, it would roughly mean, “All hail to him who is.” Easter is the season of rejoicing; we have come from a season of fasting and penance to the season of joy. It is joyful because Jesus Christ, who once was dead, is now alive. He has Risen. In fact, that was one of the greetings that ancient Christians gave to each other. They would say, “The Lord is risen” and the reply would be “He has risen indeed.”

It is no accident that Easter is in the Spring, a season of new life. The grass is starting to get green; the livestock is being born; the songbirds are returning; the flowers are starting to come up. You get the picture! It is a season of new life and the symbols that we use in Church are symbols of new life. Just look at the symbols that we use. Lilies resemble a trumpet that is blaring out the news “Christ is risen.” They also are reported to have bloomed on the tomb. Rabbits are a very prolific animal and have been symbols of life for many different cultures, which is why rabbits are often associated with Easter and the new life of it. The symbol of eggs and chicks is an obvious one, since the chickens hatch out of the eggs and are the beginning of their life.

We, in this Easter season, celebrate not just the beginning of life but also the beginning of a new and eternal life. Jesus really did die on the cross, but he also raised himself from the tomb, and that is that incredible event that we celebrate today. Easter, like Christmas, is not just a single day that we celebrate, we celebrate for an entire week, called the octave. We celebrate the wonderful gift that God has given us, and that is the path that he shows us to eternal life with him.

In this Easter week, take some time to reread the passion, death, and resurrection story of our Lord and savior and then say a prayer in thanksgiving for the wonderful gift that God has given us. He sent His own Son into the world to live our life and to die our death so that we can be shown the path back to the Father.

God bless,
Fr. Ken