Easter is plainly the solemn feast celebrating the resurrection of Christ. It is fine to say Happy Easter. The origin of the word “Easter” is complex.

A most joyful day in my ministry as your bishop is the First Sunday of Lent when we celebrate the Rite of Election. It is a beautiful moment when the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen is filled to overflowing with those of you entering the Church, together with your godparents, sponsors, parish priests, catechists and friends.  

In a world filled with inauthentic social media posts, why not inundate those platforms with authentic Easter joy? If you fasted from social media for Lent, return with a purpose.

This sudden spring awareness of feet coincides with our liturgical tradition: the washing of the feet on Holy Thursday. This powerful liturgical moment imitates the example rooted in John 13, when, at the Last Supper Jesus washes his disciples’ feet.

In the early Church, the feast day of the Resurrection of the Lord was simply called Passover, or some translation of that word, as it still is to this day in most languages of the world. This is where we get the word “paschal” in the Paschal Mystery. That just means, “the Passover Mystery.”

The Way of the Cross — and the third, seventh, and ninth stations in particular — has been an especially appropriate Lenten devotion this year. Every day, it seems, some new craziness erupts in the world, the country, or the Church. Every time we think we see rays of hope and possibility, we take another fall.

After his death on the cross, Jesus descended into the “hell” that was simply the netherworld in order to free the dead who had sought to love and honor God despite the original sin that bound them, in order that Jesus might bring them into the fullness of life

As much as we want to keep trying to fix a problem, maybe this is the time to hand it over to God. We can place whatever is troubling us into his hands, trusting that he will walk with us, moving mountains we cannot move and preparing us for the next step on our journey.  

What we call “Easter” is not only for the moment, as if it can just come and go like any other weekend. It’s about the past, present and future.

From the cross, the Innocent One, the Lamb without blemish, embraces his own suffering, mystical body. Wherever sin runs deep in our souls, Jesus heals it.