The joyous celebration of Easter

Which is more important Christmas or Easter?

When we experience very difficult time in our life we don’t have time to ask this kind of question. We focus now on coronavirus pandemic. We are watching the news and think what’s going on in the whole world. So many people infected, so many people died. No travelling, no meeting friends. The shops, schools even churches are closed and we stay at home for our own safety – this lockdown is all over.

Maybe this is a good time for short reflection. How important is our faith and religious celebrations?

When we think of important holidays, we often think of Christmas. Christmas is a wonderful time. We plan for this day way ahead of time. We decorate our homes, our churches. We buy gifts for our families and even for people we hardly know. We throw parties at work, at church, at school. We arrange family gatherings all around the season, and plan for a big dinner of turkey and trimmings on the big day. It’s the celebration of the birth of Jesus, after all. It’s when God came to earth in the form of man. What time of the year could be better than Christmas? Well, how about Easter? Which one is more important?

Billy Graham tried to answer: “A friend of mine says this is like asking which wing of an airplane is more important! Both are equally important and equally necessary—and the same is true of Christmas and Easter.”

At Christmas we celebrate the fact of Christ’s coming into the world. He was born as a helpless baby to a poor woman and her husband in an insignificant part of the Roman Empire. And yet that baby was different from every other baby who had ever been born, or ever would be born – for He was God in human flesh. At Easter, however, we celebrate the reason for Christ’s coming into the world.

Easter is the most important celebration, season or festival for all Christians. This is because it is the remembrance and celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. By His death and resurrection we now have eternal life. He took our death, nailed it to the cross and arose a conqueror over death for us. Then He gave us His life, eternal life. The very life of God is what every believer enjoys. Christ’s resurrection has ensured our salvation. If He had remained dead he wouldn’t have been able to save us from sin and death.

Also, if Christ had not risen, the Christian faith would have no foundation: “And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain (1 Corinthians 15:14).”

Easter is the most important day of the year for Christians. On Easter Christians celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ with several solemn ceremonies over a number of days. According to the New Testament, Easter is three days after the death of Jesus on the cross. Easter follows a period of fasting called Lent, in which many churches set aside time for repentance and remembrance. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Good Friday, the day of Jesus’ crucifixion.

The week leading up to Easter is called The Holy Week or Passion Week, and includes Palm Sunday (the day Jesus entered Jerusalem and was celebrated), Maundy Thursday (the Last Supper, where Jesus met with his disciples to observe Passover) and Good Friday (when Jesus would be crucified on the cross).

Christians believe Christ undertook his suffering and death willingly on our behalf, in obedience to God the Father, so that all of humanity may have hope for a new life with Him and God the Father in heaven. At the heart of Christianity is this act of God’s love for humanity. That God would send his one and only Son to die so that we may live. We can have hope – hope for our lives right now, and hope for all eternity.

Without Easter, there would be no Christmas! Christmas was when a baby named Jesus was born. Only through His life as a man did some recognize Him as the Messiah. But it was when He died and rose on the third day that the Truth became real to all of us. Had Jesus not risen, as scriptures foretold, we wouldn’t be celebrating Christmas and there would be no Christian faith.

“Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved (Romans 10:9).”

Our Lord Jesus Christ has come so we may have life and have it to the full. (John 10:10). He gave us hope that we might live forever. OUR FAITH is very important. In this difficult time we can’t go to church, no Easter celebrations but we can pray at home and trust in Him. Think about that!

Pope Francis gave special blessing Urbi et orbi (to the city [of Rome] and to the world) while he was praying for an end of the Coronavirus pandemic at St. Peter’s Square in Rome on 27th March 2020. He talked about our faith: “When evening had come (Mk 4:35).”

The Gospel passage we read begins like this. For weeks now it has been evening. Thick darkness has gathered over our squares, our streets and our cities; it has taken over our lives, filling everything with a deafening silence and a distressing void, that stops everything as it passes by; we feel it in the air, we notice in people’s gestures, their glances give them away. We find ourselves afraid and lost. Like the disciples in the Gospel we were caught off guard by an unexpected, turbulent storm. We have realized that we are on the same boat, all of us fragile and disoriented, but at the same time important and needed, all of us called to row together, each of us in need of comforting the other. On this boat… are all of us. Just like those disciples, who spoke anxiously with one voice, saying ‘We are perishing (v. 38)’.

It is easy to recognise ourselves in this story. In spite of the tempest, Jesus sleeps on soundly, trusting in the Father; this is the only time in the Gospels we see Jesus sleeping. When he wakes up, after calming the wind and the waters, he turns to the disciples in a reproaching voice: “Why are you afraid? Have you no faith? (v. 40).”

Pope Francis prayed that God’s blessing might come down upon all of us as a consoling embrace: “Lord, may you bless the world, give health to our bodies and comfort our hearts. You ask us not to be afraid. Yet our faith is weak and we are fearful. But you, Lord, will not leave us at the mercy of the storm. Tell us again ‘do not be afraid’ (Mt 28:5).”

Please pray this coronavirus prayer: Jesus Christ, you travelled through towns and villages ‘curing every disease and illness’. At your command, the sick were made well. Come to our aid now, in the midst of the global spread of the coronavirus, that we may experience your healing love. Heal those who are sick with the virus. May they regain their strength and health through quality medical care.

Heal us from our fear, which prevents nations from working together and neighbors from helping one another. Heal us from our pride, which can make us claim invulnerability to a disease that knows no borders. Jesus Christ, healer of all, stay by our side in this time of uncertainty and sorrow.
Be with those who have died from the virus. May they be at rest with you in your eternal peace.

Be with the families of those who are sick or have died. As they worry and grieve, defend them from illness and despair. May they know your peace.

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