Hellllllllllooooooooo Otterites!
It’s a few days past Easter Sunday, but that just means we’re now on the 4th day of the 7 week Easter Season.
Yep. That’s right. Easter isn’t just a single day in the life of the Church. Easter IS the celebration of the Resurrection, and we don’t do it just on that one Sunday. Easter goes until Pentecost, and readings in the Masses are all about the post-Resurrection appearances f Jesus.
That tells you how big a deal Easter really is. It’s far more important than Christmas, which as a season only lasts about 2 weeks.
No. I don’t mean the time leading up to the 25th. I’m talking about the traditional 12 Days of Christmas. Even Advent, which leads up to Christmas is longer than the Christmas Season. We prepare for the coming of Christ for that 4 weeks before Christmas. Heck, Lent, where we prepare for Easter, is for 6 weeks.
Easter is the reason we have Christianity in the first place. Paul says so himself that if He, Christ, had not risen from the dead, then our hope would be in vain. After all, who would willingly follow a dead man into painful martyrdom? Who could build the Church out of that?
Anyway, I point this out because modern society has lost the knowledge of why the Resurrection is even necessary.
What I mean by that is that modern society no longer seems to see itself in need of Resurrection. Resurrection necessarily follows for Christians as the result of God’s Sacrifice on the Cross. Not automatically, but as a consequence of belief, faith and living out our Baptismal call.
We need this because we are a fallen people, in need of salvation from sin.
This is the crux of the problem, if you’ll pardon the pun.
Individually, not many people believe they’re in need of salvation. Sure, all THOSE people we don’t like, the ones we hate, are sinful and evil; but they can’t be saved, much less resurrected. But us? Hell no, we don’t need it. We’re good and pure of heart and intention.
Obviously, that doesn’t reflect the belief of practicing Christians. Well, unless you’re a strict Calvinist. Sort of. They believe everyone’s wicked, and God has just picked some people to “save”. The rest are going to Hell and it’s all because God decided who is going where in the beginning.
Sorry, I digress.
I’ve often lamented, as have Martin and Francis, that society is so stratified and divided that compromise is impossible, because you don’t make a deal with the Devil. The corollary to that is that we’re Good and deserving of Heaven. We already taken care of because of who we are and what we beleive.
That’s the essential cause of all the division in society. It’s also the reason why society doesn’t know it needs the Resurrection. When you’ve become all-good and all-holy because of yourself and your ideas and beliefs, you don’t need a Savior. YOU are the Savior. No Savior, no Resurrection, no need for Jesus, the Father or the Holy Spirit. No need for the Church or anyone else except what I say is true for me.
Of course, when everyone says that, whose truth wins? Whose truth is right and good? Can’t be everyone’s, because if everyone’s truth is right and good, then no one’s is. There can’t be multiple truths that are contradictory. Yet that’s where we are right now. Sure many are quick to point out the evils and wrongs of others, but they miss their own wrongs and the wrongs of allies until there’s some clash that causes another division.
Don’t believe me?
I point to the MAGA crown and the Never-Trumpers.
I point to the traditional feminists, like a Christina Hoff Summers or even a JK Rowling, and reigning LGBTQ+ ideology.
What one would think would be members of like-minded groups are actually spitting enemies. And of course, there’s crossover where some on the right hail leftists for speaking out against others on the Left just as there are leftists doing the same for some on the right.
You see it in religion too. I still marvel at those in the Catholic Church who rail against young people for being attracted to what is commonly called the Traditional Latin Mass. Or that refer to the pre-Vatican II Church as if that is a different Church. Or those Latin fans who claim if it’s not in Latin, then it’s not Mass.
It’s all the Mass, dang it. No matter what the language it’s said in. As long as meets the requirements and follows the rules of the Missal, it’s the Mass!
Again, I am digressing.
We need the Resurrection, because we need a Savior. We need a Savior because we are flawed and prone to sin. We are not perfect and righteous, especially not when we rely on own faculties.
Society has forgotten this, to its and our own detriment.
