CHRST IS RISEN! INDEED HE IS RISEN

The fifty days of Easter to Pentecost are celebrated in joyful exultation as on a feast day, or better, the one “Great Sunday.”

The Church in her wisdom gives us forty days of fasting, but fifty days of feasting. This tells us something important about the Christian faith: it is more about joy than about sorrow. A new life opens before us.

The Easter season is a time for joyful praying, singing, and celebrating the sacraments of new life. This is typically the time of year when we celebrate the Sacraments of Initiation, Baptisms, Confirmations, and First Communions. The liturgical music, environment, readings, prayers, rituals, all reflect the Good News of the resurrection.

Just as the Easter season begins with a big celebration, so it ends also on a high note, with the great feast of Pentecost. In the Jewish tradition, Pentecost was a celebration fifty days after Passover. Originally a harvest festival, it later became associated with the giving of the laws on Mount Sinai. The Christian celebration of Pentecost, by highlighting the giving of the Holy Spirit, brings together the entire Easter season and celebrates the new covenant made by Jesus Christ. The work of Christ would be incomplete without the sending of the Spirit and the birth of the Church.

So let us rejoice and be glad that Jesus is risen for us.