The Easter season in the Catholic Church’s liturgy lasts 50 days, ending with the feast of Pentecost. Priests and deacons pray daily from what is called the breviary, a set of books containing hymns, psalms, prayers and readings from the Bible and from the great figures and councils of church history. Combinations of these are divided into “hours,” not because they last that long, but because they are prayed in monasteries at different times of the day.
I enjoy the Easter season part of the breviary and particularly the first “hour,” called “The Office of Readings,” because in addition to psalms and prayers, it always has a reading from the Old Testament or New Testament and a reading from the great saints of church history. During the Easter season, one can see how the full understanding of the Passion, death and resurrection of Jesus grew and was taught by St. Peter and St. Paul in the first century after Christ, then in the second century by the writings of St. Polycarp, in the third century by St. Irenaeus of Lyon and in the fourth and fifth centuries by St. Augustine of Hippo.
On the Monday after Easter Sunday we read from St. Peter’s First Epistle to the Christians in Asia Minor, “Praised be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, he who in his great mercy gave us new birth, a birth unto hope which draws its life from the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, a birth to an imperishable inheritance ... which is kept in heaven for you … ” St. Peter warned those first Christians that they would have to suffer in imitation of Christ but the salvation that the prophets in the Old Testament had promised would be theirs because “it is through him (Jesus) that you are believers in God, the God who raised him from the dead and gave him glory. Your faith and hope then are centered in God.”
It is somewhat odd that St. Paul, who wrote so much about the resurrected Christ, is used only twice after the Easter Vigil in the Office of Readings through the Easter season to Pentecost. In the Easter Vigil Mass he tells the Romans, “If we have been united with him (Jesus) through likeness to his death, so shall we be through a like resurrection” (Rom 6:3-11). He also seems to be saying that since Christ once raised from death will never die again, the same destiny will be ours.
On the next Sunday in the Office of Readings, St. Paul’s Letter to the Colossians says, “Since you have been raised up in company with Christ, set your heart on what pertains to higher realms where Christ is seated at God’s right hand” (Col 3:1-7). The final reading in the Office Readings for this season is on the day of Pentecost. There, in the Letter to the Romans, St. Paul declares, “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, then he who raised Christ from the dead will bring your mortal bodies to life also, through his Spirit dwelling in you.”
At the Last Supper, Jesus promised his disciples that he would always be with them. That would mean sacramentally and spiritually Christ will be with us in this life and forever through our resurrection in the next.
The breviary contains many other writings of St. Paul about the resurrection in its “hours” for later in the day. Perhaps the most famous is the following from 1Corinthians 15:14, “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.” The popular Franciscan writer, Father Richard Rhor OFM, comments on YouTube, “But I have really never heard a preacher emphasize the previous verse ... where he (Paul) has just said, “If there is no resurrection of the dead, Christ himself cannot have been raised”! Isn’t that extraordinary?! The universal principal comes first and only then is it illustrated and ‘guaranteed’ in the risen Christ. He is the universal exemplar and promise representing all of creation.”
St. Peter also speaks of a “new heavens and a new earth” in his first epistle. Resurrection seems to have always been an important part of God’s plan for his creation.
The Office of Readings for Feb. 23 commemorates St. Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, who was a disciple of St. John the Evangelist and died a martyr around 155 AD. As he was about to be burned at the stake, St.Polycarp prayed, “Lord almighty God, father of your beloved and blessed son Jesus Christ, I bless you for judging me worthy of this day, this hour, so that in the company of the martyrs I may share the cup of Christ, your anointed one, and so rise again to eternal life in soul and body, immortal through the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Here we have testimony to the resurrection from a second generation Christian. He was taught by the best, St. John the Evangelist. Prior to being arrested and martyred for his faith, St. Polycarp had traveled with St. Ignatius of Antioch to Rome to urge Pope Anicetus to observe the common liturgical practice in Asia Minor of celebrating the feast of Easter at the time of the Jewish Passover. Until then, the church of Rome had no special feast of Easter, rather considering every Sunday as a celebration of the resurrection. The pope declined to do this, not wishing to change the practice of his predecessors. It wasn’t until the Council of Nicea in 325 that the Roman Church adopted our present practice and date for Easter.
In the third week of Easter, the Office of Readings features St. Irenaeus of Lyon, France, who died around the beginning of the third century. St. Irenaeus makes an argument for the resurrection of Jesus and us from what we believe of the Eucharist. “The wisdom of God places these things (the bread and wine) at the service of man, and when they receive God’s word, they become the Eucharist, which is the body and blood of Christ. In the same way our bodies, which have been nourished by the Eucharist, will be buried in the earth and will decay, but they will rise again at the appointed time, for the word of God will raise them up to the glory of God the father. Then the father will clothe our mortal nature in immortality and freely endow our corruptible nature with incorruptibility, for God’s power is shown most perfectly in weakness.”
If you have helped bury a friend or loved one recently, you may remember hearing some of those words at the graveyard service.
St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo in Africa was one of the greatest theologians of the Catholic Church. His book, “Confessions of St. Augustine,” not only became a spiritual classic, but began the art of autobiography.
His long writing life spanned the last half of the fourth century and continued into the fifth. He died in 430 as the barbarians were laying siege to his sea city of Hippo. We read his discourse on The Easter Alleluia in the Office of Readings for Saturday of the 5th Week of Easter.
St. Augustine sees the liturgy we have been celebrating, with its seasons of Lent and Easter, as mirroring the life of Christ. “What we commemorate before Easter is what we experience in this life; what we celebrate after Easter points to something we do not yet possess. This is why we keep the first season with fasting and prayer; but now the fast is over and we devote the present season to praise. Such is the meaning of the Alleluia we sing. The Lord’s Passion depicts for us our present life of trial – shows how we must suffer and be afflicted and finally die. The Lord’s resurrection and glorification show us the life that will be given to us in the future. Now therefore, brethren, we urge you to praise God. But see that you praise God from your whole being; in other words, see that you praise God not with your lips and voices alone, but with your minds, your lives and all your actions.”
So, praise the Lord and sing “Alleluia, y’all!”
Father Carville is a retired priest in the Diocese of Baton Rouge and writes on current topics for The Catholic Commentator. He can be reached at johnny [email protected].