YESTERDAY. Sunday, was Easter Sunday. Many Christians, especially the Roman Catholics, think of yesterday as the end of the last day of the Holy Week celebration.
Moreover, many of us believe that Easter Sunday is the day that Christ was resurrected from death on the third day after His crucifixion.
But this is how the book Bible Diary 2021 clearly explains what really is Easter Sunday. This book is a publication of the Claretian Communications Foundation, Inc.
We are reprinting the article so we Christians can be further enlightened about Easter Sunday.
“The evening mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday ushers in the Easter Triduum of Christ passion and death (Good Friday), burial (Holy Saturday), and Resurrection (Easter Sunday). The Easter Triduum is the most solemn celebration in the Liturgical year when we commemorate the paschal mystery of Christ in which we participate through baptism and Holy Eucharist.
The renewal of baptismal promises on Easter Vigil and in all the masses on Easter Sunday culminates our Lenten observance. The sprinkling with holy water and the lighted candles in our hands evoke the most significant moment in our lives; our baptism when God claimed us as His sons and daughters.
“The joy of the resurrection of our Lord flows over to the next fifty days of the Easter Season until Pentecost Sunday. The chanting of the alleluia and the lighted paschal candle keep alive the solemn and memorable celebration of the Easter Vigil. The biblical readings and prefaces remind us that the Risen Christ is always present among us and that we can recognize Him in the proclaimed word and in the breaking of the bread that is the Eucharist.
“Two important feasts unfold the other aspects of Christ’s resurrection: Ascension and Pentecost. After forty days Christ Ascended into heaven bringing up with Him the redeemed human race. In a world oppressed by misery the Ascension enlivens our hope that heaven is our final home.
“Seated at the right hand of the Father, Jesus Christ sent down the Holy Spirit upon the church on the day of Pentecost. On this day the Holy Spirit sent forth the Apostles into the whole world to preach the Gospel and to baptize.
In of Christ’s death and resurrection. He ascended into heaven in order to send the Holy Spirit that would continue among us the work of salvation that he had begun. We exist in the era of the Holy Spirit. In some way the sacrament of confirmation is like our own Pentecost; for it is through this sacrament that the Holy Spirit anoints us to go forth and proclaim around us in word and good example the gospel of Christ.”
Well now, we are hoping that with our sharing of this treatise in the Bible Diary 2021, we can be enlightened what the entire Lenten and Easter Season is all about and when these two important commemorations of the life and work of Jesus Christ start and end, although every day of our Christian life should be a commemoration of Jesus’ life and passion and eventually His death so we would be redeemed.
Happy Easter to all of us!
