Taking Easter seriously
That God, which ever lives and loves,
One God, one law, one element,
And one far-off divine event
To which the whole creation moves.
– Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)
When American colonists were oppressed by British governance, the word most frequently uttered in pamphlets, editorials and sermons was not "safety" or "taxes"; it was "freedom." Yet, two intolerable acts of Parliament so assaulted personal freedom that those colonists broke the bonds with the mother country.
The first was the Stamp Act of 1765, which required colonists to have government stamps on all documents in every household. It was enforced by British agents who used general warrants, issued by a secret court in London, to rummage through colonists' possessions, ostensibly looking for stamps.
General warrants – like those issued by the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in Washington, D.C. – authorized government agents to search wherever they wished and seize whatever they found.
The second intolerable act was the Revenue Act of 1767, the proceeds from which the king used to pay the salaries of colonial officials and the king's clergy, thereby securing their loyalty.
The Stamp Act assaulted the right to be left alone, and the Revenue Act forced colonists to pay for a religious establishment. These two British laws caused many colonists to realize they needed to secede from Britain and form a new country, in which the government would protect freedom, not assault it. Ten years later, they did so and won the American Revolutionary War.
Today, the loss of freedom comes in many forms.
Sometimes it is direct, as when the government dictates the wearing of a mask and the reception of an experimental vaccine, and punishes those who don't comply.
Sometimes it is subtle, as when the government borrows $4 trillion a year and, as a result, our money and assets lose much of their value, and our descendants will be taxed heavily to repay the loans.
Sometimes it is secret, as when the government reads emails and text messages and follows the movements of cellphones, all without search warrants; or when it uses drones to kill people the government hates or fears, without a declaration of war or any due process.
Freedom is the ability of every person to make personal choices without a government permission slip – to exercise free will. Free will is the natural characteristic we share in common with God. It is His unconditional gift to us. He created us in His image and likeness. As He is perfectly free, so are we.
When the government takes away freedom – whether by fiat or legislation – it steals a gift we received from God, it violates the natural law and the Constitution, and it prevents us from seeking the truth.
Freedom is the essence of humanity. No one can achieve happiness or truth without it. Government negates freedom.
We know from events 2,000 years ago this week – in the Roman Empire police state of Judea – that freedom is also the essential means to unite with the truth. To Catholics, the incarnation and the perfect manifestation of truth is Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Son of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
To believe in Jesus is to take Easter seriously.
Taking Easter seriously means that on the first Holy Thursday, Jesus attended a traditional Jewish Passover Seder. Catholics believe that at this Last Supper, Jesus performed two miracles so that we could stay united to Him. He transformed ordinary bread and wine into His own body, blood, soul and divinity, and He empowered His disciples and their recognized successors to do the same.
That Jewish Seder was the first Catholic Mass.
The next day – the first Good Friday – the Roman government crucified Jesus because it feared that by claiming to be the Son of God, He might foment a political revolution. He did foment a revolution, but it was in the hearts and minds and souls of men and women.
Taking Easter seriously recognizes that Jesus had the freedom to reject His horrific death, but He exercised His free will to accept it so that we might know the truth. The truth is that He – and we who have faith and hope and perform good works – would rise from the dead.
On Easter, that "far-off divine event," as Tennyson wrote, Jesus rose from the dead. By doing that, He demonstrated to us that while living, we can liberate our souls from the slavery of sin because, after death, we of faith, hope and selfless good works can rise to be with Him.
Taking Easter seriously recognizes that the Resurrection of Jesus is the linchpin of human existence "to which the whole creation moves." With it, life is worth living, no matter its painful costs or losses. Without it, life is meaningless, no matter its fleeting joys or triumphs.
Easter has a meaning that is both incomprehensible and simple. It is incomprehensible that a human being rose from the dead. It is simple because that human being was and is God.
Taking Easter seriously means that there's hope for the dead. If there's hope for the dead, then there's hope for the living.
But like the colonists who fought the oppression of the king, we the living can achieve our hopes only if we have freedom. And that requires more than faith and hope and good works. It requires a government that protects freedom, not one that assaults it.
America today is dreary, divided and fearful. The government is broke, overbearing and unworthy of belief. It threatens World War III, has produced wild inflation, destroyed happiness and now wants our guns.
A revolution for freedom is coming. And, faith in Jesus' Resurrection – which is also hope for our own – infuses the souls of the faithful with a joy that only God can give.
Happy Easter!
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