Fr Antonio Pineda
n Holy Tuesday, I attended the Journey to Jerusalem event at Holy Cross in Much Hadham. The event was an opportunity for children to learn about the meaning of the events of the Holy Week: Jesus’ triumphant entry to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the Last Supper on Maundy Thursday, Jesus’ death on Good Friday and His glorious resurrection on Easter Sunday.
To explain the significance of Easter Sunday to the children, I asked them to think back to Christmas Day just a few months ago. Christmas was when we the whole world, it seemed, celebrated the birth of Christ by giving each other presents, with special family gatherings, and so on. With so much festivity and merriment, you could be forgiven for thinking that Christmas Day was the most important day of the year.
Not so, I told the children. I told them that, in fact, Easter Sunday is the most important day in the Christian calendar. And this is for four main reasons:
1. The Resurrection of Christ is the basis of our Christian faith. It is the greatest of the miracles, for it proves that Jesus is God. That is why St Paul writes: “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain; and your faith is in vain” (I Cor 15:14). “Jesus is Lord, He is risen” (Rom 10:9), was the central theme of the kerygma (or “preaching”), of the Apostles
2. Easter Sunday is the guarantee of our own resurrection. Jesus assured Martha at the tomb of Lazarus: “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me will live even though he dies…” (Jn 11:25-26).
3. Easter is a feast that gives us hope and encouragement in this world of pain, sorrows and tears. It reminds us that life is worth living. It also gives us the strength to fight against temptations and freedom from unnecessary worries and fears.
4. Easter gives meaning to our prayers: It supports our belief in the Real Presence of the Risen Jesus in and around us, in His Church, in the Blessed Sacrament and in Heaven, hearing our prayers, and so gives meaning to our personal as well as our communal prayers.
Wishing you all a blessed Easter season, for He is risen!