Easter Offers us New Opportunities

It is always remarkable to see events leading up to Lent: the Brazilian Carnival, New York parade and the New Orleans Mardi Gras are traditionally events that were established as a final hedonistic release prior to the sacrifice of Lent.

It can be interpreted as a societal release, an opportunity for people to indulge in all that they will give up during this time of sacrifice.

So, in as much as the behaviour associated with these pre-Lenten events has become tasteless and can have very little connection with the true spirit of Lent, it does imply that there is recognition of the pending sacrifice.

So in the last 40 days leading us to Easter, some of us successfully ditched coffee, alcohol, chocolate, meat or cigarettes. These tend to be vices, the type of stuff we should avoid or consume in moderation anyway, but a sacrifice was made and we could proudly go into Easter knowing that we had suppressed temptation and made a proportionally, possible sacrifice.

Now, in the Easter season — remember, it ends at Pentecost, not the day after Easter Monday — we enter this time to emulate Christ. It is a tribute to the sacrifice he made over a 40-day period, in the desert as he spent his time fasting, reflecting and praying. Easter reminds us that his 40-days-long sacrifice was in fact a lead-up to an even bigger sacrifice: his crucifixion.

Christians base their faith on the significance of this ultimate sacrifice which made possible the glory of the resurrection. But even as we are called to emulate Christ, it obviously cannot expected in a modern, democratic age that people should lay down their lives for their beliefs. The vast majority of us today do not have to die as martyrs — though in some areas there are those who do—but does this mean that Easter marks the end of sacrifice, that we can go back to the Mardi Gras parade?

Christ’s sacrifice changed the world, the real impact he had has been translated through Catholic Social Teaching, as but one example. So in lieu of you having to lay down your life, a simple question all year around could be: what impact do I have on my community and society at large? In other words, am I emulating Christ in adding to changing the world for the better?

It does not demand much. In fact we are reminded that Lent is not just about what you sacrifice, but should also be a time of giving of yourself. This momentum of Lent, which is also a time of giving of yourself, needs to be maintained perpetually.

It is great to organise a blanket drive in anticipation of winter, it is wonderful to volunteer at your local soup kitchen and feed the poor, and we cannot but admire the non-perishable food collection that happens over this period. But do we do these things only during Lent? What happens after Easter? Who feeds the poor after Easter and who provides them with shelter against the cold?

In as much as Christ’s ultimate sacrifice paved the way for our eternal reward — and many Christian denominations seem to fixate and base their entire lives on life after death—the reality is that as mortal humans on this planet, we are part of this world and in as much as we can point fingers to poor leadership in the corporate, political and civil society realms, it is up to us to be the positive change.

Our sacrifices cannot have ended with the conclusion of Lent. The sacrifice must be ongoing — and Easter marks the beginning of this opportunity.