Easter Thoughts - Part 1
Easter Sunday
It's interesting how we humans are creatures of habit; every week Catholics fulfill their obligation of the Sabbath by uniting to celebrate the Eucharist. Now this tradition has been passed down since Jesus' Last Supper with his disciples. When we gather for this celebration, we remember how and why Jesus died; each week we re-establish our place in Christ's body.
Sadly, because of our habits and lack of total understanding about why we celebrate Christ's sacrifice the way we do, many of us find the Mass to be boring, just another part of our religion, truly as a mere obligation.
So I wonder why it is that each year we have a very special celebration of this Paschal Mystery, one that is held in higher regard and more attended than "every other" time we do this. We plan extensive liturgies and musical arrays for this one week. Many Catholics think that this time of year is "more important" than the rest of the Sundays. Of course, it doesn't hurt that the some of those Sundays are called Ordinary Time (indicating the ordinal number of 1st, 2nd, 3rd in a count of those Sundays rather than the connotation of the word implying "less than impressive" time).
So why is it that we make such a big deal about "Holy Week"? Why is it that this random week in the year is held as the representation of the actual re-enactment of Christ's death?
Well, we actually believe that every celebration of the Mass (even weekdays) is just as important theologically speaking. Truly, every time we gather for the Eucharist, we believe that Christ is present in the bread and wine and that we recommit ourselves to Him. The weekly celebration is the reminder of His death and resurrection and the re-enactment of His Last Supper.
In Jesus' time and before, the people had a different view of time; a view that is hard for us to grasp. They understood time, not as a linear progression of events with a past, present, and future, but as a living story. In this view of time, they did not think back to remember Moses and their fathers' delivery from Egypt; instead, they believed that each year at Passover they were actually re-living the event, that each year God was blessing them and leading them from the slavery of whatever oppression they were expreiencing. We call this oppression sin.
So today when we celebrate Easter Mass, we are taking a cue from our Jewish ancestors and watching as Jesus again and again puts himself on the cross to die for our sins. Rightly so, Easter is a special time of year; we celebrate the same Eucharist, but we not only remember the historical Jesus who died for us, we actually believe that He is dying again. That is why the congregation has a speaking part in the retelling of the Passion, namely the crowd condemning Jesus to die.
This is a very powerful comment, long-winded too!
Happy Easter
It's interesting how we humans are creatures of habit; every week Catholics fulfill their obligation of the Sabbath by uniting to celebrate the Eucharist. Now this tradition has been passed down since Jesus' Last Supper with his disciples. When we gather for this celebration, we remember how and why Jesus died; each week we re-establish our place in Christ's body.
Sadly, because of our habits and lack of total understanding about why we celebrate Christ's sacrifice the way we do, many of us find the Mass to be boring, just another part of our religion, truly as a mere obligation.
So I wonder why it is that each year we have a very special celebration of this Paschal Mystery, one that is held in higher regard and more attended than "every other" time we do this. We plan extensive liturgies and musical arrays for this one week. Many Catholics think that this time of year is "more important" than the rest of the Sundays. Of course, it doesn't hurt that the some of those Sundays are called Ordinary Time (indicating the ordinal number of 1st, 2nd, 3rd in a count of those Sundays rather than the connotation of the word implying "less than impressive" time).
So why is it that we make such a big deal about "Holy Week"? Why is it that this random week in the year is held as the representation of the actual re-enactment of Christ's death?
Well, we actually believe that every celebration of the Mass (even weekdays) is just as important theologically speaking. Truly, every time we gather for the Eucharist, we believe that Christ is present in the bread and wine and that we recommit ourselves to Him. The weekly celebration is the reminder of His death and resurrection and the re-enactment of His Last Supper.
In Jesus' time and before, the people had a different view of time; a view that is hard for us to grasp. They understood time, not as a linear progression of events with a past, present, and future, but as a living story. In this view of time, they did not think back to remember Moses and their fathers' delivery from Egypt; instead, they believed that each year at Passover they were actually re-living the event, that each year God was blessing them and leading them from the slavery of whatever oppression they were expreiencing. We call this oppression sin.
So today when we celebrate Easter Mass, we are taking a cue from our Jewish ancestors and watching as Jesus again and again puts himself on the cross to die for our sins. Rightly so, Easter is a special time of year; we celebrate the same Eucharist, but we not only remember the historical Jesus who died for us, we actually believe that He is dying again. That is why the congregation has a speaking part in the retelling of the Passion, namely the crowd condemning Jesus to die.
This is a very powerful comment, long-winded too!
Happy Easter
posted by Michael-Fay @ 3/27/2005 09:58:00 PM
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