Easter is always a joyous feast that goes from the low of Good Friday to the heights of Easter and the repercussions of the Resurrection of Christ. Sad that my sins required such a response, but so glad all the same to still not be in my sins and that they could be forgiven.
For most of my life Easter was just a distraction. Nothing to really look forward to. Sure hiding eggs for your kids can be fun, but the secularism of Easter can not hold a candle to the truth of Easter. Mostly I would just get annoyed that so many stores closed on Easter.
Easter now as a Catholic is another story. The preparation of Lent is such a good reminder to the build-up of the Easter season which runs to Pentecost. Though I am still working towards realizing the full sense of Easter. It is way too Easy to see Christmas as the greatest feast when really the penultimate feast is Easter. The Feast of the Incarnation marks an important part of the path for our Messiah, but that birth was marching towards the Crucifixion and Resurrection from the beginning. Since the culture also really emphasizes one feast over the other it is just too easy to forget the full ramification of Easter. As a child and budding materialist the materialism of receiving gifts was up my alley and I liked the various Christmas traditions and their trappings even if I had no idea who Jesus was. As an adult I am more excited about Easter and the fact that my sins could indeed be forgiven. I whole-heartily echo Chesterton’s answer on why he became of Catholic, “To get rid of my sins.”
The part of the Easter Vigil where the lights come on and we for the first time since before Lent sing the Gloria still brings tears to my eyes. I like going to the Easter Vigils because of the baptisms of the catechumen and the reception of the candidates into full communion with the Church. This year I was surprised by the rather large groups of both catechumen and candidates, I believe the most I have seen in my parish since I came into the Church 11 years ago. The parish administrator made a point about people entering the Church despite the massive onslaught by the media to attack Catholics at every turn. What Fr. Richard Neuhaus called the long Lent after the breakout of all the priestly abuse scandals in the United States has turned into a longer Lent as it extends in Europe. Jesus stills calls people into the Church despite the noise of society as he will always do.
I am not really a Bill O’Reilly fan, but I saw something today that he said that I mostly agree with.
A number of Catholics have left the church because of the priestly sins, but not me. From the beginning, in Sister Claudia’s first grade class, I understood that the Catholic Church was about Jesus, not Father Flannery. Believe me, I saw so many loons in my Catholic school days that I should be a Buddhist. But it is the theology, not church leadership, that keeps me in the fold.
Well while I do love the theology in the Church, it is Jesus that keeps me in his Church. Besides I don’t want to wear Jesus out by having him continuously go out and find me and carry me back on his shoulders.
I came into the Church after listening to Catholic Answers and reading tons of material both on the Church and the news of the Church’s members in present times along with the past. I knew full well the problems in the Church and that I was not entering a perfect Church staffed with nothing but saints. Otherwise they would not have let me in. While I am certainly scandalized at times by those who profess the faith, my faith can not be shaken by them. I can understand how some can be so scandalized as to leave the Church, but I answer with “Lord, to whom shall we go, You have the Words of Everlasting Life.”
Still I rejoice to see those coming into the Church and I am always so curious to want to know them and to hear their stories of how the Lord brought them into the Church. While there are often a lot of common threads, each story is a unique one.
I wish each and every one of you a Blessed Eastertide and the joy that comes with it.
13 comments
Being Catholic is the best! And yes–we are here for Jesus–and if someone leaves because of a priest or other leadership–it’s just an excuse–they would have found some other reason to leave if it wasn’t for that one. Happy and blessed Easter 🙂
Happy Easter! Thanks for the link to the 15 misconceptions –but I found it discouraging to see two glaring errrors within that list! Number 3 says that the Church has recognized the importance of women’s contributions as far back as 1947!? What? All those canonized saints? The mystics? Catherine of Siena scolding the pope? Joan of Arc? Were none of these women properly recognized until then? It’s such a bone-head statement I’d hate to give it to a Protestant friend of mine. “Yeah, up until 1947 women were second-class citizens in the Church, but it’s different now, brother!”
And Number 5 refers to the Immaculate Conception as the virginal conception of Jesus! Yike!
Having said this, it’s good to have such a compilation. But we should make sure it’s spot on or we look even sillier than we really are.
Sorry to be a nit-picker; it’s the former copy editor in me rearing her dusty head.
Hi Jeff, a wonderful post. Thank you!
I was a bit confused early on though about your comment regarding Christmas and Easter. Since “penultimate” means “second-last” or “second-greatest” did you mean that people often regard Christmas as the “ultimate” and Easter the “penultimate”?
but I found it discouraging to see two glaring errrors within that list! Number 3 says that the Church has recognized the importance of women’s contributions as far back as 1947!?
Indeed. And when it says, “Although women are still not eligible to become priests”, it sounds like that perhaps someday they will. The link clarifies it somewhat, but it is still bad wording.
Didn’t Thomas Merton say something to the effects that if he relied on the example of the Catholics that were around him he never would have become Catholic? I think he said something like that. If you know that quote or where its from I’d appreciate you sharing it.
“Lord, to whom shall we go, You have the Words of Everlasting Life.” Amen.
Best of all, Alleluia!! Happy Easter, Jeff!!!!
“Lord, to whom shall we go, You have the Words of Everlasting Life.”
So very true. Like you, when I am upset by what other Catholics (lay or clergy) or saying or doing, I find that that says it all. It isn’t about me, or about other Catholics — whether I agree with them or not. It’s about Christ and his Church. Look back at the long history of the Church: There have been times when it was easy and/or great to be a Catholic, and times when it was hard and/or awful. Why should it be any different for us? The Church is the Church. Where else can you go?
As you point out, there is indeed no other place to go. One cannot simply leave the Body of Christ! Where would one go. That is not to say that the priests who have been abusing their trust and position so much can not cloud people’s understanding of the nature of the Church. Sadly, I think the groundwork for that is down to the relativism so rampant in the modern age. If you believe the Church is but one of many denominations, why would you not leave when so brutally disappointed by some of her ministers, which problem is so greatly magnified by the unjust press coverage. This also leaves people so vulnerable to the attack on the Holy Father. Thanks be to God we have been blessed with a Holy Father who is such a good and faithful man. If not, how many more would not be blinded by the latest frenzy.
If you know that quote or where its from I’d appreciate you sharing it.
Dunno, but I do remember in Brideshead Revisited when Charles Ryder says to Bridey: “If ever I thought about becoming a Catholic, I’d only have to talk to you for five minutes to be cured. You manage to reduce what seem quite sensible propositions to stark nonsense.”
Only problem with Lent is that at the end of it, I always feel as though I’ve wasted it.
Happy Easter!
Happy Easter, Jeff!
I left the church in the 70’s when the Theology became weird! Then I realized that if I looked hard enough I could find the ‘traditional theology’. And while the weirdness from the 70’s still prevails I choose not to pay attention.
My relationship to my Church is about myself and God, not the actions of a few sinners!
As you point out, there is indeed no other place to go. One cannot simply leave the Body of Christ! Where would one go. That is not to say that the priests who have been abusing their trust and position so much can not cloud people’s understanding of the nature of the Church. Sadly, I think the groundwork for that is down to the relativism so rampant in the modern age. If you believe the Church is but one of many denominations, why would you not leave when so brutally disappointed by some of her ministers, which problem is so greatly magnified by the unjust press coverage. This also leaves people so vulnerable to the attack on the Holy Father. Thanks be to God we have been blessed with a Holy Father who is such a good and faithful man. If not, how many more would not be blinded by the latest frenzy.