Don't Let Your Easter Be "Virtual"!

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CHRIST IS RISEN! INDEED HE IS RISEN!

Thus sounds the Easter greeting, which is announced throughout the Easter season around the world. Throughout the Paschal Liturgy in the Byzantine tradition, the priest shouts “Christ is Risen!” to which the congregation enthusiastically cries, “Indeed He is Risen!” We then exchange that greeting amongst ourselves for the next forty days, until Ascension Thursday. When I had the blessing to celebrate Easter in the Ukraine, I was delighted to hear even the border guard greet us with “Christ is Risen!”

Radiance. Light. Anticipation. Joy. Life and Resurrection. These all come to mind when I think of Easter. They are intangible, but very real, and we experience them through tangible means—rituals, liturgies, and symbols.

Think of all of the special liturgical customs associated with the Feast of the Resurrection in both the Eastern and Western Christian traditions: the processions, special prayers (the Exsultet), music (the Paschal troparion), the Paschal candle, the Easter fire, the Paschal Homily of St. John Chrysostom, the ringing bells with jubilant Alleluias and Christ is Risens!

Not to mention the full churches and the food…. In Eastern European traditions, beautiful baskets of Easter fare—festive breads, meat, eggs, butter, cheese, wine, foods that are traditionally not eaten during Lent—are blessed, and the delicious goodness is savored after the Easter Liturgy with family and friends.

I was reflecting on how important special customs are in helping us enter into big feasts such as Christmas and Easter. Considering the fact that this year we will have to experience Easter “virtually,” I was reminded of how sacramental and incarnational—in other words, how human—we are!

Deep down we know that the “online version” just doesn’t cut it.

Yes, deep, quiet moments of pondering the beauty of the Resurrection are part of it—but I experience so much joy through the participation of my senses! This is how it’s meant to be. After all, Jesus physically rose from the dead, and His disciples touched His risen and glorified physical body!

However grateful I am to be able to participate in the streaming liturgies, they are simultaneously a reminder of how much I need “the real thing.” I need to worship and rejoice with my brothers and sisters in Christ in person—not to mention, to receive the Risen Lord Himself in the Eucharist!

That said, this year’s Easter challenge is to not let the lack of the normal physical expressions keep us from really entering into the joy of Easter and experiencing the power of Christ’s Resurrection—not only on Easter Sunday, but during Easter Week (which is considered one, big, Easter Day), and throughout the Easter season (which lasts for 50 days, until Pentecost!)

Practical things you can do to enter into Easter joy:

  • Participate in the Easter liturgies online, but also go back and spend some time in quiet prayer meditating on the beautiful texts from the Easter Vigil, Paschal Matins, and other liturgies, especially some of the readings from the Liturgy of the Hours. (The second reading from the daily Office of Readings has some profound meditations for the Easter season.)
  • Contemplate the depth of Christ’s love for us and enter into the deep joy with which His Mother must have greeted her Risen Son! As St. John Paul II said in one of his Easter season addresses: “Dear brothers and sisters, let us try to relive the joy of the Resurrection with Mary’s heart. Even in the darkness of Good Friday she prepared herself to receive the light of Easter morning. Let us ask her to obtain for us a deep faith in this extraordinary event, which is salvation and hope for the world.” The power of the Resurrection is real! “Redemption is a truth, a reality, in the name of which man must feel himself called, and ‘called with effectiveness.’” (John Paul II, TOB 46:4) The Risen Lord wants us to live “risen” lives! Ask Him to heal any wounds and fill your life with His power. 
  • Call and message your family and friends on Easter and during Easter Week—and perhaps even write a real hand-written note to someone! We all need to be reminded of the joy of Christ’s Resurrection. The more we can proclaim to one another that “Christ is Risen!” the better! 
  • Go outside on a sunny day, resist the temptation to look at your phone, and just take in the beauty of nature—the sun coming through the light green leaves, the blossoming flowers, the blue sky—all signs that life continues on and that God is good.
  • Learn the Easter greeting—Christ is Risen! Indeed He is Risen!—in your favorite language! If you start using it with friends, they may catch on before Pentecost!

Christ’s Resurrection not only brings us joy but gives us hope!

“Redemption is offered to us in the sense that we have been given hope, trustworthy hope, by virtue of which we can face our present: the present even if it is arduous, can be lived and accepted if it leads towards a goal, if we can be sure of this goal, and if this goal is great enough to justify the effort of the journey…Here too we see as a distinguishing mark of Christians the fact that they have a future: it is not that they know the details of what awaits them, but they know…that their life will not end in emptiness… The one who has hope lives differently; the one who hopes has been granted the gift of a new life.” 

Pope Benedict, Spe Salvi 1, 2

Let us live that hope so that we can be a joyful witness of our Risen Lord to those around us—especially those who don’t know Him yet!

Christ is risen from the dead,

Trampling down death by death,

And upon those in the tombs

Bestowing life!      

Easter Troparion, Paschal Hymns
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