What’s one of your favorite Easter memories — something that really summed up the holiday for you?
In 2006 a priest friend and I traveled to the Holy Land for two weeks, arriving the day before Palm Sunday.
We spent that first week (Holy Week) in Jerusalem, visiting many of the holy sites, and even celebrating Mass early one morning at the tomb in which Jesus was laid. It was an awesome and moving experience.
Our time in Jerusalem culminated on Easter Sunday with Mass in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The church was jam-packed with worshipers.
It was not a quiet affair, but to be celebrating the Lord’s Resurrection yards away from where he was crucified, died and was buried is something difficult to put into words.
That afternoon, we made our way to Galilee. We recalled that Jesus himself went to Galilee on Easter Sunday.
We continued to celebrate the Easter event during our remaining time in Galilee, recalling, “He is truly risen, alleluia!”
Father Stephen Doktorczyk
St. Joachim Church.
Costa Mesa
When our son was 4 years old we spent Palm Sunday afternoon dyeing Easter eggs, getting ready for that holiday side of Easter. During Holy Week we were invited to a Passover Seder.
At one point the rabbi announced that he had hidden a piece of matzot, and the children were to search for it. After a wonderful scramble one of the older children triumphantly held up the piece of unleavened bread. She’d found it!
Our son, puzzled and perplexed, questioned, “Aren’t you supposed to look for eggs, not crackers?” He had his mom and dad’s sympathy, of course, and we hadn’t helped him “switch gears,” so to speak.
He’d naturally thought that at Easter you look for eggs and if you find a cracker, you haven’t succeeded in your search for eggs.
Mary Magdalene was in the same situation: She went to visit Jesus’ tomb on Sunday, looking for the dead body she’d helped bury on Friday and found the tomb empty.
She failed to recognize Jesus standing there because she went to the tomb expecting to find one thing and she found something radically different.
Like Mary, we often fail to recognize God’s presence when God is right beside us. At Easter we need to learn to see God as s/he appears to us — often in a form we least expect.
(The Very Rev’d Canon) Peter D. Haynes
Saint Michael & All Angels Episcopal Church
Corona del Mar
