Pope Benedict XVI said, “Faith in the resurrection of Jesus is an affirmation that there is a future for every human person,” but as special as the celebration of Easter should be, said the Holy Father, our secular culture tries to take away its spiritual value.
On Easter, the church proclaims the most important and radical fact in the life of humanity and of every human person: the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ has brought a new hope of happiness and salvation for the whole world. At the same time, the commercial environment of our modern society tends to make this holiday into a secular celebration: one more opportunity for a big department store sale or simply a day to indulge in a cookout or eating chocolates.
The difference between one celebration and another is enormous. It’s the difference between nothing and everything. Easter must be a time to renew our hope. It is a feast day that gives full meaning to our lives.
In his recent encyclical titled Spe Salvi — “Saved by Hope” — Pope Benedict XVI explains the importance of the mysteries that we just celebrated at Easter.
“Christ — the Holy Father says — descended into ‘hell’ and is therefore close to those cast into it, transforming their darkness into light. Suffering and torment is still terrible and well — nigh unbearable. Yet the star of hope has risen — the anchor of the heart reaches the very throne of God. Instead of evil being unleashed within man, the light shines victorious: suffering — without ceasing to be suffering — becomes, despite everything, a hymn of praise.” (Spe Salvi 37)
So, thanks to the mystery of the resurrection of our Lord, we can have hope, a virtue that we can easily neglect but one of the theological virtues, infused by God together with faith and love, and without which we cannot develop our spiritual life.
The well-known French convert, Charles Péguy, described in a poem the value of hope and its relation to the other two virtues we receive from God, namely, faith and charity: “Faith is a faithful wife, charity is a passionate mother, all heart… And hope is a tiny little girl. But, nevertheless, this tiny little girl, she alone, bringing along the other two virtues, is the one who will go through worlds of obstacles. As the star led the Magi from the far corners of the east to my Son’s cradle, so a flickering flame, hope, she alone, will guide the virtues and the worlds, a flame will break the eternal darkness.”
That flame that brought us the “little girl” hope, that passionate fire, which in the Easter Vigil celebration was represented by the Easter candle, is the risen Lord. “He is our peace,” as St. Paul said. (Eph 2:14) And he is our peace because he has brought us the gift of hope, which lights any darkness in our lives.
Let’s compare this wonder, this gift from God, to the frivolity of a secular celebration, and let us ask ourselves whether Easter is in our lives the decisive event that it should be, the miracle that we should welcome, treasure, and be infinitely thankful for, or a date that we celebrate, but for the wrong reasons.
Although it is often said that the rabbit is a pagan symbol — chosen for its fertility — there is a European tradition that has considered the rabbit — more precisely the hare — a Christian symbol of Easter. According to this tradition, the hare has powerful rear legs that allow it not only to run, but especially to go uphill. Its weak front paws, on the other hand, make it difficult to go down. And that is why the hare prefers to escape uphill rather than downhill.
Likewise, the Christian, thanks to the Lord’s resurrection, feels attracted to going uphill, to ascending towards Christ; and on the other hand, he feels discouraged when descending towards sin.
Let us pray that the risen Lord and Mary, our Blessed Mother, cause of joy, will help us to live this time and the rest of our lives the same as the hares of Christian tradition: always uphill, towards God and towards the practice of Christian virtues. Happy Easter!