EASTER: THE FEAST OF FEASTS
Easter is a solemnity, one of those days which we celebrate and enrich with wishes.
Easter is the oldest feast of Christians and for three centuries their only feast.
This great feast was celebrated since the beginning of the church in three ways: once a year, on Easter day; once a week on Sundays, the Lord's day (because on that day the Lord was risen from death); every time we celebrate the Mass, where we proclaim "Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again".
Easter reminds us the core of the message which was the earliest preaching of the Apostles. The Lord is truly raised. Do not seek Him among the dead, but sing a song of joy.
But to celebrate is more than to remember. To celebrate is to give shape to our involvement in that event. We don't celebrate the birthday of people totally alien and unknown to us. We can celebrate only when we are somehow involved with a person. We Christians celebrate Christ not because he was an exceptional man but because our destiny and life is linked to his destiny and life. Paul puts it quite radically: "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins"
Suffering and death are important events on the road of life of every person. When these phases in life are approaching and experienced, the question is asked:"what is happening? Can death be so powerful that God is at loss what to do, that he abandons me, that he leaves me to my fate? or can I hope that this is not the end?"
Easter brings God's answer to this question, to this anxiety, which also Jesus experienced when He cried out, "God, my God, why have You abandoned me"; it is the question of every person in distress of suffering and death….God's answer is: the resurrection.
We profess this astounding answer. We say in the Creed: what happened to Christ can and will happen also to us…. He died… but He is raised. This also is promised to us…. We firmly believe it.