How to Understand Easter

Renaissance master Pintoricchios 15th-century fresco of the Resurrection in the Vaticans Borgia Apartments. (Photo courtesy of Vatican Museums)

Its first day, Palm Sunday, recalls Christ’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem, but days before the cheering crowd became a jeering mob demanding his life.Maundy Thursday commemorates Christ’s institution of the Eucharist and the Christian priesthood while Good Friday focuses on his suffering and death.

The following evening and Easter Sunday celebrate Christ’s resurrection from the dead.

How can we approach Easter with a fresh understanding in view of our having heard Christ’s story very often and know already its outcome?

Perhaps the best way to celebrate Easter is to discover its meaning in our lives, since what makes us human is our capacity to love. Sadly for most Christians, the saving action of Christ is confined to the events of his last 24 hours on earth. However, it is necessary to appreciate, too, the value of every day of his human life.

Basically Christ became Christians’ Lord and Saviour by living his human life to the full, moment-by-moment, day-by-day, year-by-year right up to his excruciating death on the cross of Calvary. In doing so, He was the one who ultimately got right the human equation by responding in every situation and experience of his life in, through and out of love.

By living like this from his attaining the age of reason, Christ was able to respond perfectly to the major choices he faced on the last day of his human life. This is the theology of Easter. How do we experience it in our own lives?

It is relatively easy to acknowledge verbally that Jesus is our Lord and Saviour. Experiencing and living that reality is another matter. It calls for us to similarly live each day as Christ did, responding in every circumstance and situation of our lives in, through and out of love.

The acid test of such living is how we cope with pain, suffering and simply life’s daily demands, like routine, effort and irritation. There is no doubt that the measure of a person is indicated by how one handles this human phenomenon.

A mature handling of life’s demands never crushes a person. Rather, it is the occurrence of genuine human growth. Certainly, this is how Christ coped with his ultimate suffering.

Anyone who follows his example in this respect similarly grows and experiences a redemptive value in his or her own suffering. Only when one suffers or shares the suffering of another does it make sense and bring home the meaning of Christ.

Living like this is the reality of Christ’s rising from the dead. Therefore, I trust, your own life experience reflects Easter every day of the year.