The Easter of your lifetime...

I received this email from my barber a few weeks ago. Angelo goes through the Easter scenario. This Easter is among the earliest the holiday can occur. According to how it works, if I understand these things correctly, Easter takes place after some special full moon cycle near to the first day of spring. I may be off in my analysis but the bottom line is that Easter as a result becomes a ‘floater’ of a holiday. Easter is always on a Sunday but never the same date and varying between the months of March and April. The swing into spring that brings in Easter can vary greatly from one year to the next. According to my pastor Father Riegler there was a move a few years ago to fix the date for Easter. That is to earmark it for example on the second Sunday of each April. For whatever reasons those that control such things couldn’t come to consensus and thus we’re stuck celebrating Easter in weekly and monthly differentials from one year to the next. Why, the moment the corned beef and cabbage are done for St. Patrick’s Day you’ll be thinking about popping the Easter Ham in the oven. Both days separated by what feels like only hours this year. For what it’s worth Easter won’t be this early again for another 220 years. By then we’ll all be on some other lifetime.

I tell you all this to start today’s topic. Easter as kid. Hopefully, if I am relevant, some Easter memories are uniform, and we can all relate. Christmas as we all know gets the ‘hype’. It’s a great holiday for faith and Madison Avenue together. There’s the birth of a King rather than the gruesome death and resurrection of a savior. There’s feasting, not fasting. There’s abundance not sacrifice. There’s fun and merriment not somberness and reflection. The Christmas season to quote today’s younger people ‘has it all going on’ while most of Easter up until the end is sullen and mundane. There is a quality about Easter as I grow older that’s appealing. When you’re a kid, or at least when I was young I didn’t like things ‘slowed down.' The Easter reflection taught to me in Catholic schools was not something I embraced with great joy. Back in the day not having every moment ‘action packed’ meant the other extreme, severe boredom.

Now as an older man I am genuinely starting to see the value in Easter’s austere approach. The quiet time asked of us to seek, to pray, reflect and renew matches that same spiritual path Christ put on himself for 40 days. The quiet time to reflect, pray and meditate got me to thinking about some people and Easter’s past. As a kid of course you always land a few days off around Easter. Holy or Maundy Thursday as its known, Good Friday and ‘Easter Monday’ all represent time off for kids. Good Friday. I remember it always got cloudy, even stormy right around noon. The world always looked apocalyptic on Good Friday and still that thought crosses my mind even today. God’s way of reminding man he still remembers what we did to his son. As a young man I did what any right thinking kid would do on a day off. Played with my friends and usually that was basketball. Right around 12:30 or 1pm on Good Fridays my mother would come track me down. “Go visit Grandmom. Take a ride over on your bike, you make her day when you stop by, and she’s always very sad on Good Friday.” Mom would request my participation first and ultimately if I didn’t acquiesce, it would turn to insistence. “OK, ok I’ll take a ride over,” I’d answer frustrated and defeated. I’d rather go then be lectured. Upon arrival it was the same scene year in and year out. My grandmother, a matronly, caring and very Italian woman from Philadelphia born of parents who traveled to the city via Naples and Sicily would be sitting in her living room praying the rosary and melancholy.

“What’s wrong Grandmom?” “Why so sad?” I’d say. “Oh David, Our Lord’s on the Cross, pray with me." And so I would, and we would for about an hour. I’d be lying if I didn’t tell you there were two main reasons I stuck it out. One, my mother sent me over, and if I got home to soon she would only send me back. Two, my grandmother was a great cook. The kitchen smelled outrageously good as we prayed. My grandmother preparing decadent cakes and pies in the oven for Easter Sunday. I’d sneak in when done under the excuse of needing some water and shovel down a few of the baked treats reserved for Sunday. Getting caught pigging out on Good Friday is a Catholic no-no. It’s an especially Italian Catholic bad move. So leaving no trace became fashionable for me long before meeting the cub scouts. Catholics don’t go to mass on Good Friday. It’s the one day when there’s church but no official or ‘regular’ mass is held. Trust me, there’s church, plenty of church and mom later in the afternoon caravanned me into Our Lady of Ransom, my then parish in the city’s Mayfair section for an afternoon of long services.

I didn’t enjoy or get any thing of value from my faith as a kid. Mom and dad just putting me through the motions, seeing their sons walked the faith whether they wanted to or not. What was a nuisance, if I speak candidly, as a kid today is a great resource. Prayer, regardless of your faith is a great way to get centered. Prayer works out the entire body. It invigorates from the soul outward till it literally pours out of you. Those who don’t get anything from prayer I’d argue simply don’t pray enough. It’s the same mentality for those who exercise regularly. If you work out on a regular no-fail basis, you get results. Pray regularly and your outlook on life will greatly benefit. Pray occasionally or not at all and well, you get the picture. This Easter season comes in next week. Whatever faith you call your own seek it out with all your heart and immerse yourself in prayer and meditation. See the real, tangible benefits these practices have to offer. I today try and teach my children what I’ve been taught. That prayer and following your faith is as important a thing you can learn. Of course, like their dad was they’re not always delighted to be going to mass or church. However, the boys go anyway. Maybe they’ll learn before their dad that a prayer filled life has tremendous value to yourself and those around you. Make this an Easter to remember, even if it falls in the middle of March. Have a blessed holiday and see ‘ya around town.