Easter is a season not a day Rejoice!

By Juliana Valdez

“Celebrate, Jesus celebrate,

He is risen, He is risen, and He lives for ever more….

Come on let’s celebrate, the Resurrection of the Lord….”

Easter is the ultimate goal of our Lenten journey through the sacrifices of prayer, fasting/abstinence, and almsgiving. It is the celebration of the Risen Christ!

From the beginning of the Lenten journey, through the prayers, scripture readings, hymns, and reflections, we are assured that God’s mercy and love awaits those who sincerely seek His pardon and forgiveness.

As we spend quiet time reflecting on this, the words of the hymns especially, speak to our troubled hearts:

Come back to me….long have I waited for your coming home to me and living deeply our new life.

God of mercy and compassion….Jesus Lord, I ask for mercy, let me not implore in vain….

Jesus my God, behold at length the day….O pardon me Jesus, Thy mercy I implore….

Now is the time….the day of salvation, a call to repent, return to your father….

Search me O God….Try me O saviour, know my thoughts today….

The Kingdom of God….Fasting with Prayer, and our good works of mercy, creates with almsgiving a true Lenten spirit….

And so many more, the invitation to “Come” into the presence of the One who reassures us that He will not spurn humble and contrite hearts, the assurance of our forgiveness is in itself a healing.

Then we enter into the Passion of Jesus and the cross. Again, the liturgy with the appropriate readings, reflections, and prayers (the Stations of the Cross), hymns, etc., stir up within us, the desire to be reconciled with God and each other:

By the Blood….Jesus Saviour, hear our cry….

Dying He….and on that cross He died for me….

Were you there….Sometimes it causes me to tremble….?

When I survey….love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all….

And so many more, inviting us to enter into the Passion of Christ, all done for our redemption.

Then the celebration of the Resurrection at Easter is made so much more meaningful that when we proclaim in song, Sing Alleluia, the Lord is risen, He is risen indeed, Alleluia! We do so with the firm belief and understanding that When He rose from the dead, He rose for me, yes, it’s He, can’t you see? The man from Calvary!

Such have been my reflections, supported by the scripture readings of course, which have helped me to have a meaningful season.

Of course, there is always something to mar your inner peace, and for me, once again it’s these Easter Bonnet parades taking place before Good Friday. Viewing a television news item highlighting a parade planned by a nursery schoolteacher who thought it was a good way of seeing her students whom she had not seen for over a year, I grumbled aloud, “But Good Friday is not here yet, how come Easter activities?”.

Lack of knowledge? Commercialisation? Sentimentality? Whatever the reason, it is hoped that those who know better, will do better.

Let us also remember that Easter is a season, not just a day, and as it continues, we need to take advantage of the graces to be obtained from our Risen Lord. Ordinary Time then, after the season of Easter has passed for yet another year, should see us living, loving, trusting, and glorifying the One whose death brought us life.

And so we rejoice in the knowledge that we are called to be witnesses to the mercy, forgiveness, and abundant love of our Risen Lord.

We sing together: Rejoice my soul, my soul rejoice, Alleluia!