Easter Reflections

In today’s world, what is the role and place of Easter? Of what use and to what end does the modern person celebrate Easter after observing Lent – the fasting, the rituals, and the good works? I think it is time not just to do every single thing that is ‘prescribed’, so to speak, but also time to look into ourselves and ask ourselves if we truly understand what all this is for.

It is sad, because as one looks around present-day society, it appears as though the only use of the Holy Week which concludes with Easter is another three-day vacation, another reason to take that long-taken-for-granted diet, another opportunity to just lay back and relax. The story of the Christ is then pushed into the background; the salvation of the contemporary person is a story that he or she has ignored, or has altogether forgotten.

It is, therefore, a fair challenge posed to today’s Catholic youth, to make a stand in the midst of the seemingly ‘more pressing’ matters of the present. It is a challenge for today’s Catholic youth to show, express, and live out their faith in the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of the Risen King, in spite of the world’s tempting offer of compromises.

In this Easter Season, may we, young people, listen to our ever-faithful Lord, calling us not just to fast at Lent and rejoice at Easter, but also to take it ‘slow’. Let us listen to the invitation to take this Season seriously, to look into each moment that has passed in our young lives and see how the Lord has been with us, who has never left us, as we experience and carry our own crosses. It is He who makes our burdens light, it is in Him that we find rest, and it is with Him that we shall be brought from suffering to glory. Happy Easter!

By: Duane Allyson U. Gravador