Easter: Trying to connect this holiday’s dots…

When I was a little kid and looking forward to Easter, I remember being incredibly anxious to hunt for the hidden eggs with candy in them that were hidden all over our house by some magic bunny who’d somehow broken in the night before. Luckily we got to do our egg hunt early on Easter Sunday morning before church or the wait would’ve been too tough (I can only imagine the sugar high we were all on trying to sit still in Mass!).

I also remember being confused about this really fun, bunny-centric egg hunt while fighting to stay awake and silent in a church in which I was so bored. Was this day about a fun rabbit? Or about this guy up there nailed to the Cross who’d died for our sins? These “bunny vs. Christ” thoughts were even more of a struggle since the Mass was in Latin — which I found really distracting. There was a lot of “Dominus vobiscum” (May the Lord be with You) and our response “Et cum spiritu tuo” (And with your Spirit). I played with the words all the time “Dominoes…for Biff is scum” and “Eat gum spirited duo” to keep from fidgeting in my seat but my questioning and discomfort persisted.

It took getting older and discovering that this egg-laden burglar didn’t exist (just like that other guy expert in breaking-n-entering, Santa) and that there was a lot more to these stories and why these faux characters were encroaching upon these two important Christian holidays.

It was enlightening to learn in adulthood that Christian holidays in ancient times — both Easter and Christmas — were made more palatable to the masses by leveraging and coinciding with their traditional pagan holidays Spring Equinox for Easter and the Winter Solstice for Christmas. I further learned that the power and meaning of the exact day for Christmas or Easter were not even close approximations to the actual dates of Christ’s birth or Resurrection which, by the way, are unknown. The more I studied the Bible and facts around the politics of Christ’s time and the decades following his crucifixion (when many of the books of the Bible were written), understood how European monarchs and religious leaders molded and interpreted religious dogma for various purposes, the more gray area I saw and the less absolute my views became.

During my adult life I’ve met and befriended people from all over the world…many of whom practice different religions than I. In fact, approximately 67% of the world’s people practice a different religion than Christianity (roughly 14% of that number are non-religious). This has enabled me to broaden my horizons and elevate my own views of Christianity, my world-view, and my understanding and pursuit of the true nature of God and the universe. (I read once that understanding God is like expecting the opera “La Boheme” to be understood by your cat — but I’m still giving it my best shot).

Gotta run…the police are here. Seems my house was broken in to last night and there is white fur everywhere.