"I've been a priest for 51 years and (the symbolism) is one of the things that keeps you from ever getting tired of it. It's always a new experience."
Kevin Wilson
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Apr 13/01) - This is the holiest time of the year for Christians.
The 40 days of fasting and reflection that is Lent has given way to Holy Week, and its emphasis on the passion narrative.
It started with Palm Sunday, commemorating Christ's return to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover with his disciples.
Parishioners received palm fronds to symbolize Christ's arrival in the Holy City from the Mount of Olives.
According to scripture, Jesus rode into town on a donkey, and was greeted as the Messiah by throngs of people who lay palm fronds along the route that Christ rode.
After Palm Sunday, the focus turns to the Sacred Tridiuum, the central events being the Last Supper on Holy Thursday, the Crucifixion on Good Friday, and the Resurrection on Easter Sunday.
Father Pat Murphy, at St. Patrick's church, said Catholics are encouraged to attend all three church services prior to Easter.
"It's actually one event," he said. "You start with the last supper, which is Christ giving another aspect of his kingdom, that of service, when he washes the feet of his apostles."
The last supper also heralds the institution of the Eucharist, the sacrament in which Catholics believe that bread and wine are transformed into the body and blood of Christ.
The intensive preparations for the Good Friday are laden with symbolism.
"It's good to talk of symbolism," said Father Murphy. "Because a symbol is richer than a sign ... a symbol is a sign with layers of meaning."
Borrowing from others
While Easter now commemorates Christ's victory over death, virtually every religion celebrates a holiday at this time of the year.
The word 'Easter' has its origin in an ancient fertility goddess worshipped extensively in the Middle East before the time of Christ.
That's not to say the the mystery of Christ's death and resurrection didn't happen. The early Christian church went from being vulnerable and persecuted to being the official religion of the Roman Empire after Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity.
Official religion or not, Christianity still had to co-exist with the many other established religions of the time. In the long term, the best solution was to incorporate elements of other beliefs into Christian rituals.
"If you look at the Old Testament," said Father Murphy, "God built on the cultures that were already there ... some of the psalms are made-over versions of pagan prayers."
Jesus, according to Murphy, built on the Jewish faith, "and Christian missionaries helped their people acculturate by using their culture as an expression of the Gospel."
Easter, the time of renewal, takes place on the heels of the first day of spring, as does the Jewish feast of Passover. The images that we associate with Easter are often closely intertwined with the fertility of spring.
The eggs and the rabbits have nothing to do with the Passion of Christ, yet they are still part of Easter.
Father Murphy said the deep symbolism of Easter and the Passion are a restorative for tired souls.
"James Joyce was always a non-practicing Catholic," he says, "but he always showed up every year for the Easter service because he found the symbolism so nourishing as a poet."
