Thomas Griffin 3/27/24
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So many Americans will gather around the dinner table and get together with family members and friends that they love on this day. People will take a break from the stresses of everyday life and they will have the chance to simply enjoy one another’s company over (hopefully) some good food and drink. These are things we need on basic human levels as well as emotional and psychological levels. We need human interaction and true friendship in order to be fulfilled.
What can bring these celebrations to an even higher level, however, would be the recovery of what Easter is actually about. As with many other holidays, its true meaning has been stripped and it has been transformed into something worldly and false. We do not need the change of a season from winter to spring as an excuse to get together with family and friends. We do not need to celebrate the existence of a talking and gracious rabbit in order to be pushed to spend more time with our kids and to contemplate how we can love them more deeply.
The celebration of Easter has become a national holiday. Like other American days of celebration, there is an entire market for decorating for Easter. Whether it is inflatable bunnies and chicks on your neighbor’s lawn or colored eggs invading the living room space, Easter is becoming about everything other than God.
According to Smithsonian Magazine, “Easter is a celebration about spring and new life.” The weather is becoming warmer, the grass is turning green and the flowers are beginning to bloom again. “Eggs and flowers are rather obvious symbols of female fertility, but in European traditions, the bunny, with its amazing reproductive potential, is not far behind.”
Many scholars claim that the connection between the Easter Bunny and Easter in America goes back to the 1700s when German immigrants brought over their custom of the Easter hare to the celebration. Easter time was an opportunity to go hunting for the hare and eat its meat. Similar customs were also a part of history in England and other European countries.
In contemporary America, commercialism and a consumerist culture has transformed Easter into an obligation to buy more decorations, purchase candy and speak about the Easter bunny as the one that brings gifts and goodies to children who are nice. Easter has become another holy day that has been hijacked by a society that has lost its roots in God.
The reason why Easter is celebrated, the true roots, branch back to the Middle East, two thousand years ago. We celebrate with abundant joy because a real person of history, Jesus of Nazareth, was born, fulfilled over 300 predictions of what the Messiah would do and say, was sentenced to death for his teachings and actions, but was alive again on the third day after his brutal death. His body was never found and he began appearing to his closest friends and other people of his time, showing them the scars from his torturous death. Hundreds of witnesses saw him and countless others died for their testimony that he was alive again.
So many people and cultures in history have claimed that this is fantasy. That the resurrection was something made up by ancient people who were unintelligent and easily persuaded to believe something that was magical and make-believe. The irony is that this is what Americans have actually done to Easter. They convinced themselves to play make-believe with this day each year. We have turned it into bunnies and egg-hunts and we have sacrificed God in the process.
There are two easy ways that we can inject God into our Easter get-togethers this Sunday. First, pray before you eat dinner. The simple acknowledgment that God is real and that this day is about Jesus Christ who conquered death is the easy and necessary reminder that we need to assure ourselves that no matter what difficulties we are going through, we are not alone and things always get better. The empty tomb always has the final word.
Second, research something about Jesus’ life, words, or actions. There are countless resources online that can bring about great conversations and give us contact with who he was and what he did for us. Look into the groundbreaking television series, The Chosen, or listen to one of Fr. Mike Schmitz’s videos or homilies. Do something to gain more knowledge about what, and who, this day is actually about.
So, celebrate this Easter – make it a day of joy. Have fun with family and friends, even have an Easter egg hunt with the kids if you like. But also make time to pray before you eat, to learn about this God-man Jesus who died and rose for you. The parties and gatherings are great, but making contact with the One who is alive today and who is responsible for granting you eternal life is the true reason to celebrate Easter.
Thomas Griffin is the chairperson of the religion department at a Catholic high school on Long Island where he lives with his wife and two sons. He has a masters degree in theology and is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Empty Tomb Project: The Magazine.
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