Easter isn’t over. No, I’m not talking about the left over Easter candy, ham or company you might still have lingering around. I’m talking about Easter itself. Early in its history the Church allotted the fifty days from Resurrection Sunday to Pentecost Sunday as a season dedicated to the celebration of Easter – this season is called Eastertide. As a season of the Church year Eastertide is dedicated to exploring the mystery and meaning of Christ’s resurrection. Furthermore, it is supposed to be a time of special celebration during the worship services of local churches. Why fifty days though, I mean isn’t that a bit excessive, event Lent is only forty days?
If you and I are anything like the original disciples, we have a slow learning curve when it comes to understanding who Jesus is and what the Christian faith is all about. The fifty days of Easter remind us that we are indeed an Easter people, a Resurrection people, and that without Christ’s life, death, and resurrection we have no salvation. If we only celebrated these central truths of the Christian faith on one Sunday a year we might easily forget them, but fifty days gives even the dullest among us a chance to catch on.
If you haven’t managed to get your Easter cards out yet --don’t worry-- you’ve still got forty seven days to get them done, it’s still Easter after all.
Happy Eastertide!
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