Father Pierre Amar is a priest in Yvelines.
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LE FIGARO. - The Catholic Church celebrated the resurrection of Jesus Christ this Sunday, that is to say Easter. Why is this holiday important to Catholics? What is the meaning of the word “Easter”?
Pierre AMAR. -
Easter is the greatest holiday for Christians; more important even than Christmas. Christmas celebrates the birth of a child, which is quite common, while Easter celebrates the resurrection of a man who comes back to life. It is a celebration which founds the Christian faith: by resurrecting, Jesus announces the victory of life over death.
Easter means “passage.” Originally, it was a Jewish holiday that celebrated the liberation of the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt; and it was during the Jewish Passover that Jesus was resurrected. In the Christian tradition, originating from Judaism, the Jewish Passover takes on its full meaning. It is accomplished in the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ where humanity is freed from a slavery even greater than that of Egypt: that of death. Easter brings us astonishing and prodigious news: death will not have the last word.
Celebrating the resurrection is believing in Life after death. Does this still make sense in a dechristianized society?
It is true that many French people have forgotten the way to church but, nevertheless, there were many baptisms this Easter weekend! This year, there are even 30% more baptized people than last year: 7,135 adults and 5,025 adolescents have received this sacrament in recent days. It is a joyful surprise showing that
“the ways of the Lord are inscrutable”
. I believe that God himself is "in the works", that he has beckoned to these adults, called them. It’s up to our parish communities to welcome them. Among these new catechumens, more than a third are between 18 and 25 years old. It is certainly the result of an inner call, difficult to express. Many young people tell how the silence in a church, the light through stained glass windows, a candle placed in a church or the sight of the cross touched them… This makes me think of Paul Claudel, who was “seized” at night of Christmas 1886 and who wrote
: “In an instant, my heart was touched and I believed. I believed, with such a force of adhesion, with such an uprising of my whole being, with such a powerful conviction, with such a certainty leaving no room for any kind of doubt that, since then, all the books, all the reasoning, all the chances of a troubled life, have not been able to shake my faith, nor, to tell the truth, touch it
.
Many young people also indicate that the time of confinement during Covid was the beginning of an inner journey: faced with loneliness and worry, faith was a very precious resource for them. I also think that the WYD in Lisbon this summer played an important role. Many come from non-believing families where the Christian tradition is rather absent, except among their grandparents. They evoke the figure of a grandmother or grandfather to speak of a return to faith, of support, of a model. This explosion of baptisms is a nice surprise but it seems to me that it confirms an underlying trend. Last year we already had a 28% increase.
The urgency is not to respond to suffering with death, it is not to help people die, but it is to help them live. Isn’t that also the message of Easter?
Abbot Pierre Amar
As for the question of Easter, that of life after death, it can be asked by everyone because it is a question of hope. Believing that evil will not have the last word, that love will win, gives life a whole new flavor. It even gives meaning to the story. I am one of those who think that France has its past and its future in this Christian hope. And this is perhaps why many French people - sometimes non-practicing - go to mass on All Saints' Day, at Christmas and at Easter, to receive a word of consolation and hope.
Because Easter does not come to eliminate evil; the suffering, the difficulties, the crises that our societies are going through exist and will always exist. But at the heart of trials, at the heart of our limits and our fragilities, God comes to show us that he is present. Claudel - again - wrote one day:
"God did not come to eliminate suffering, he did not come to explain it, but he came to fill it with his presence
. "
And why are young people baptized especially at Easter?
This has always been the great tradition of the Catholic Church, since the first centuries. New converts and adults are baptized on Easter night, which marks the passage from death to life and therefore, for them, from darkness to light, a sign of faith and hope. Children and newborns are baptized all year round.
A baptism on Easter night is the culmination of a long journey of almost two years. It's long but it's a period of deepening their faith, a time of discovery, of inner journey. This requires a certain requirement but it allows them to get to know and discover the Church into which these people choose to enter, while above all preserving their freedom. This is also one of the big differences between a sect and the Catholic Church: it is very easy to enter a sect but very difficult to leave - which shows that freedom is reduced - while to become a Catholic, it's the opposite: it's difficult to get in and very easy to get out.
Easter Sunday is preceded by the Paschal Triduum - Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday. These three days allow Catholics to prepare for Easter when Lent has already lasted 40 days...
Lent began on Ash Wednesday. The three days that make up the Paschal Triduum have their particular grace and their own symbolism. On Maundy Thursday, Christians celebrate the institution of mass and it is thus the feast of priests. On Good Friday, Christians remember that Jesus died on the cross and gave his life to save the world. Holy Saturday is a day of waiting before the resurrection of Christ on the night of Saturday to Sunday. These three days are the occasion for particular liturgies and specific celebrations in which many people participate.
Also read Does Easter still have a religious meaning?
Furthermore, it is a period when we see many people coming to confession, to receive God's forgiveness. In my parish, over several days, we confessed for more than 20 hours and there was a line! I see it as a desire to prepare for Easter: everyone wants to purify themselves internally and look beautiful for the celebration!
Traditionally, we go on a chocolate “egg hunt” on Easter morning. Does this have a deep meaning or is it just the profane translation of this Catholic holiday?
Any liturgical tradition is often accompanied by a gastronomic tradition… After Christmas, we share the galette des rois. Lent, for its part, is a time of penance: foods formerly considered “rich” such as chocolate and eggs have been eliminated. Eggs - in the past - kept very poorly. We finished them mid-Lent, with pancakes or other egg-based recipes. So they come back at Easter, and in chocolate form because it's a celebration. Furthermore, the egg symbolizes rebirth and new life. Under its inert appearance, it retains the potential for new life. Isn't this what Easter ultimately announces? There is room for more life, and for everyone.
How do you explain that Easter is still celebrated so much - through egg hunts or giving each other chocolates - in agnostic homes?
Each of the Christian holidays that punctuate our calendar year is the occasion for a family celebration. The joy of sharing a good time with loved ones is always there! But Easter says something even more: that there will be, one day, a reunion with those who have already left us.
Until then, it seems to me that we must resolutely choose life, love it and make people love it. Life is so short, so difficult sometimes and above all so fragile. The stakes are serious. On this precise point, the government is preparing an ethical shift that revolts me: the bill on “active assistance in dying”, the ability to end a life when it is diminished. I believe that we must refuse with all our strength a society where each of us will be judged according to our physical and intellectual abilities, and, ultimately, on our social usefulness or profitability. We must refuse to be told one day:
“You are worthy as long as you are autonomous. When you are old or fragile, the question of your death must arise
.
The urgency is not to respond to suffering with death, it is not to help people die, but it is to help them live. Isn’t that also the message of Easter?