Surgun100, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The Psalmist in his prophecy about Easter Day (Ps 118:24) says: «This is the day the Lord has made.» Even if every day «is made to rejoice in» (Ps 90:14), the day of the resurrection is all the more so. It is the «Lord’s day», as St. John the Evangelist tells us, opening up a new future for mankind (Apoc 1:10).
St. Ignatius, the Church Father, develops the same theme of the centrality of Easter Day in his letter to the Magnesians, stating that «on the Lord’s day our life sprang up through Christ and we received faith and hope» (IX:1). Paradoxically, time itself is redeemed by an event in history giving life a new foundation.
So that, within the framework of the Genesis account of creation, the resurrection now takes the place of the Hebrew Sabbath. The Lord’s day is at the same time the first day and the eight day. God gave rest to all things and made the beginning of another world. St. Barnabas, another Church Father, assents and concludes: «Therefore we celebrate with gladness the eight day in which Jesus rose from the dead» (XV: 8f). From the earliest times the Christian Church has on the first day of the week celebrated the Eucharist as a life giving sign of Christ’s resurrection (Acts 20:7).
Thus Easter Sunday is still set aside as the Sunday of all Sundays. It is the most celebratory day of the year for on that day God fulfilled his promises through his Son Jesus Christ, our Saviour.
Happy Easter – in spite of the pandemic!
+Roald Nikolai
