Are We STILL Celebrating Easter?
Materialism vs. Liturgical Life
Did you notice the 10-pound chocolate Easter bunny Costco touted this year? I will admit, my children and I gawked at this thing with some amazement. The giant Easter bunny kiosk popped up about mid-February, just as our minds were dreaming of spring and millions of Christians across the globe were starting their Lenten fast. I wasn't at Costco Easter weekend, but we all know the pattern: if they were still on sale by Easter Day, they weren't around much longer after that.
Even though, liturgically, Easter Day or Pascha for the Orthodox is only the first day of the Church's 40-day celebration of Christ's Resurrection. We see this pattern maybe even more so in the Christmas season, where artificial trees peek out of store aisles mid-October and most of the candy is on deep discount by December 20th. The feast day hasn't arrived, but materialism says it's time to look ahead and move on to the next thing.
But why should we keep the feast? It's May. Families are making their summer plans. Why should we still be greeting each other in light of Christ's Resurrection?Liturgical seasons like Christmas and especially Easter are the Church's way of guarding Her faithful from the influences of this world that say the approach of something, the pace by which you are getting ahead of whatever it is, is more important than the thing itself. Materialism will sell you the chocolate bunny, but only if you will eat it on your way to something else.
In contrast, the Church is softer, slower, more human. The Church says there is a time for fasting and there is a time for feasting; short-change one and you short-change them both. The Church says now, still, is the time of the Resurrection. Now is the time to dwell with the Holy Myrrhbearers, who went to Christ in their darkest moment without expecting anything from Him, or St. Thomas, whom Christ invited, in love, to touch His own wounds. Now is the time to wonder why Christ did not erase His own wounds.
It takes a certain strength to keep the feast, to say "No" to the pressures to put Christ's Resurrection behind us already. But we are stronger together, and we are stronger in Christ. He is still with us in these days before Ascension, just as He was with those who'd had to see His cross face-to-face.
LUKE TAYLOR GILSTRAP is the Vice President of the Board of Directors for Eighth Day Institute. He received his MFA from Seattle Pacific University and his poems have appeared in Spiritus, Relief, Ekstasis, and other publications on Church and culture. He happily lives in Wichita, Kansas with his wife and three sons.
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