The 50 days of Easter

Easter is celebrated for fifty days, officially ending at Pentecost on May 15. Thank goodness all of our candy is eaten and we can stick to more spiritual manifestations of the season! The great vigil Mass that marked the end of Lent’s sobriety and the beginning of Easter’s excess is a Mass of new birth, renewed salvation, and restored humanity. It heralds these fifty days of unrestrained joy and thanksgiving where our Masses’ Bible readings focus on the beginning of the Church, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and the meaning of discipleship. Our church is draped in white, which beautifully reflects the evening’s candlelight and the morning’s springtime sunshine streaming through the stained glass in a rainbow of colors. Singing the Alleluia and the Gloria is again part of the service, missed during Lent. Since fifty days is about one-seventh of the year, this season is poetically called, “The Great Sunday.”

My father greeted me that morning with a hearty, “Buona Pasqua!” which is Italian for “Happy Easter;” he is half Italian and is enjoying a language class in his retirement. While “Easter” comes from English’s Germanic roots, the word “Pascha” is used in the Romance languages (derived from Latin, the language of the Romans) still today. It comes from the Hebrew and Aramaic word for “Passover,” since Jesus is the final, perfect Passover lamb, our only sacrifice for sin now. Catholic churches, which always have a crucifix as a reminder of true love, re-present Christ’s sacrifice. Since he is the same yesterday, today, and forever, we point to what he did. His sacrifice then is just as efficacious now. Halleluia, indeed!

During this season, we mark the feast of Divine Mercy (this past Sunday). From the beginning prayer:

“God of everlasting mercy, who in the very recurrence of the Paschal feast, kindle the faith of the people you have made your own. Increase, we pray, the grace you have bestowed, that all may grasp and rightly understand in what font they have been washed, by whose Spirit they have been reborn, by whose blood they have been redeemed.”

Mercy is the topic of a book by Pope Francis that I read this Lent, The Name of God is Mercy. It is subtitled “A conversation with Andrea Tornielli,” a veteran Vatican reporter. Mr. Tornielli speaks with the pope about his messages of mercy and his naming of this liturgical year as the Year of Mercy. He asks, “What is mercy for you?” And Pope Francis replies, “Etymologically, mercy derives from misericordis, which means opening one’s heart to wretchedness. And immediately we go to the Lord: mercy is the divine attitude which embraces, it is God’s giving himself to us, accepting us, and bowing to forgive.”

Later on, he asks the pope about his episcopal motto, Miserando atque eligendo. Francis relays the story of Jesus choosing Matthew, the tax collector, “By mercy and by choosing” (Miserando atque eligendo). “So,” he continues, “mercifying and choosing describes the vision of Jesus, who gives the gift of mercy and chooses, and takes unto himself.”

Mr. Tornielli asks, “Why, in your opinion, is humanity so in need of mercy?” And Pope Francis answers, “Because humanity is wounded, deeply wounded. Either it does not know how to cure its wounds or it believes that it’s not possible to cure them. It’s not just social ills … it is a loss of the sense of sin, the awareness of sin. We need mercy. The love of God exists even for those who are not disposed to receive it – they are all loved by God, they are all sought out by God, they are in need of blessing. Be tender with people.”

“Is it possible to have too much mercy?” asks Mr. Tornielli, and the pope answers, “No human sin – however serious – can limit mercy. The Church condemns sin because it has to relay the truth, ‘This is a sin’, but at the same time, it embraces the sinner who recognizes himself as such; it welcomes him and speaks to him of the infinite mercy of God.”

Sometimes when I arrive early to church (which is usually because I was too late and didn’t make the service with my family and had to attend another by myself!) and have a few minutes before the processional, I stare at the crucifix. I am so certain of Christ’s mercy when I see the image of such great love that he would lay down his life. Then right after my own heart’s peaceful certainty, I am reminded that it is the same for all. That we are all loved by God. As we begin this season of Scripture readings on the meaning of discipleship, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and the beginnings of the Church, may we remember that as our church is swathed in pure white, we are bathed in mercy and sing in joyful excess — Jesus is risen, Halleluia!

Allison Howell and her family are longtime residents of the Valley. They are Catholic converts and keep a hobby farm full of animals and children.