Kristin Straeuli, Greytown
I recall that when living in Germany, I would often add an Easter greeting in my emails or wish one a “Happy Easter!” as soon after Easter as Monday or Tuesday. And more than once, I would get a confused or dismissive response that, “Well yeah, Easter is over,” as if I were crazy to still be stuck on it or invoking it.
This was amazing to me, considering how long retailers can drag out an (even minor) holiday for sales, that mid-week milestones and holidays are often celebrated both before and after, or even that there are whole greeting card sections for “belated” birthday greetings – what one would only wish if they were still celebrating after the fact. Thanks to the catchy song, even secular and non-secular alike know that there are 12 days of Christmas, despite the similar push there to rush the celebration of the Incarnation into Advent and then quickly be over it once Christmas actually arrives.
When it comes to Holy Week and Easter – the most impactful event in history – we should be in no hurry to rush past it. God the Sonbecame a human in order to knowingly suffer in our place, to pay once and for all for the sins of the world and freely give that to all who believe in Him so they may have eternal life. This incredible act and plan of salvation for the world, this Gospel, is worth celebrating for more than one day or even one weekend. The Church in her wisdom even gives fifty days to celebrate the season of Easter, all the way until Pentecost. Let us, as the heirs of this radical grace given on that Good Friday and Easter, rather follow that calendar and do its celebration justice.
Because this is the Gospel that we talk about so often when we speak of stewarding the Gospel! The Easter events altered the course of history for our good when Jesus took our punishment upon Himself. All promises and prophecies were fulfilled in Him, as he said when appearing to his disciples after arising:
Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.” (Luke 24:44-48, emphasis added)
Thanks be to God that He has granted and facilitated this proclamation of the “repentance for the forgiveness of sins” from that day on, all the way to you, who are now reading this. You are personally connected to this very account of what happened millennia ago. Beginning with the resurrected Jesus’ charge to His disciples there in Emmaus and trickling all the way down to wherever you are reading this from in 2025, by the Holy Spirit, the Gospel has been stewarded, passed on, aufbewahrt, for and to you.
So, party on! Keep celebrating this Good News and keep sharing it! God gives you time, resources, vocations, indeed your very body and voice – everything – to share this Gospel with others. May you joyfully respond to God’s mercy by always being ready to steward it with others, no matter what day of the year it is.
