Easter During Lent

It feels a bit strange to me to be ‘celebrating’ this early on in our new penitential season of Lent, but that is exactly what the Church calls us to do – to celebrate the weekly solemnity of our Lord’s victory over sin and death.  While some may argue about whether or not this equates to a weekly respite from our Lenten resolutions, Sundays – even during Lent – remain for our Christian community a hope-filled reminder of the peace, joy, and fullness of life offered to us by Jesus Christ in his Paschal Mystery.

            Here in the Holy Land, we celebrated by sleeping in! Well, at least some of us did. On this rare occasion, our first real responsibility of the day was to be at the bus by 9:30 am to leave for Mass in Abu Gosh. Our destination there was Saint Mary of the Resurrection Abbey, a Benedictine community of brothers and sisters. Although the Benedictines have only been present at this site for about a century, the church, and its crypt date back to the 12^th century Crusaders who identified the place with the town of Emmaus mentioned in Luke’s Gospel. The church itself is original as are much of its interior frescoes. Its acoustics are superb and were on full display during our Mass, which was celebrated by members of the community in French, interspersed with some expertly chanted Latin.

            We went to Kyriat Yearim after Mass, which is held to be the traditional site of the Ark of the Covenant before King David moved it to Jerusalem. The grounds include a church, a guesthouse, the community’s residence, and some beautiful gardens and courtyards. A few of us even got a game of stickball (or rebar-ball depending on your choice of bat) going. When we finally headed out, a consensus was quickly reached that the events of our morning and early afternoon were about as appropriate for celebrating our Lord’s resurrection as they could have been.

            I haven’t given up or added anything too crazy for this Lent, but even the few things that I have added and taken away are proving noticeably more challenging that I had anticipated. No doubt as this season of penance and re-establishing our relationship with God continues, there will be temptation to doubt, discouragement, lethargy, and indifference, as there can be during any season. However, armed with a new understanding and experience of the importance of celebrating our Easter joy every Sunday, my hope is that this season might be one marked by gratitude and renewal for all of us.