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The Easter Season – 50 days for singing ‘Alleluia’!

by Susanne Lehne

Brussels (30th March 2008).- In our parish in Vienna the pastor often greets people with ‘have a joyful 16th day of Easter’ (or whatever the day might be). This is a conscious attempt to highlight the importance of the full 50 days which the Church’s liturgy offers to us as a time for the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection and the gifts of the Risen Lord in our lives. The liturgical reforms of Vatican II re-established the close connection between Easter and initiation which had existed in the early church and reintroduced the 50 days of Easter as a prolonged season of celebration of paschal joy.

“The fifty days from Easter Sunday to Pentecost are celebrated in joyful exultation as one feast day, or better as one ‘great Sunday.’” (General Norms for the Liturgical Year and the Calendar 22). There are seven paschal Sundays and these 50 sacred days end with the Feast of Pentecost, which celebrates the coming of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the Church. 

It seems appropriate at this time, as we begin Holy Week and enter the high point of the Christian year, to recall the rhythm of liturgical seasons and how it affects our prayer and impacts upon our daily lives. The rhythm of fasting and feasting is found in many cultures. Lent and Easter need each other and we need both of them. Both seasons derive their meaning from the Easter Triduum, the three days of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and the Easter Vigil which celebrate the paschal mystery in stages. 40 days of Lent prepare us for the solemn renewal of our baptismal vows by calling us to repentance, asking us to take stock of our lives and to fast from all that is nonessential and distracting from our relationship with God and with our neighbour. 

50 days of Easter signify a time of rejoicing, of celebrating our baptismal call to new life in Christ, our anointing with the Holy Spirit and our participation in the Eucharistic banquet. This is the season of the sacraments par excellence, the time when sinners find reconciliation, the time when newcomers are welcomed into the Church, when young people are confirmed and welcomed to the table of our Lord, when many couples choose to celebrate their vocation by exchanging their wedding vows.

How conscious are we of this season and its meaning for our lives? It appears that we are somehow more aware of Lenten rituals of fasting, prayer, almsgiving and other sacrifices. How can we mark the Easter Season and allow it to take hold of our lives and gradually transform us? For newly baptised Christians and those who join our Church at this time, this is the period of ‘mystagogy,’ the time of reflection upon the Sunday Scriptures and learning how to live according to one’s baptismal commitment. We too, even if we were baptised as infants, can cultivate a stronger awareness of the Word of God and meet Christ Risen in the Easter stories, along with Mary Magdalene, with Thomas and the other disciples, walking with those on the Road to Emmaus, and prayerfully awaiting the gift of the Holy Spirit. And we can become a more welcoming community, by actively celebrating with those whose family members are being baptised, confirmed and who celebrate their first Holy Communion and by taking an interest in befriending those who are new Christians in our midst. 

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