The other day I came across an unassuming line in a book I was reading which described Easter as a holiday that had “largely faded away.” I wasn’t surprised by this assessment and unfortunately, I tend to agree, that for your average American, Easter probably ranks below Halloween, and perhaps just above St. Valentine’s Day. However, it did remind me of something I’d read years prior which changed my life for the better. It spoke in a similarly causal way of Easter being the preeminent Christian holiday. I remember this making sense from a theological perspective but found it really didn’t match my experience. I grew up in what most would call an evangelical church today, and while we certainly didn’t ignore Easter, we lacked much in terms of a formal observance outside of an Easter morning service the day of, and Easter clearly played second fiddle to Christmas.
This got me thinking, what if I decided to take it seriously? What if, instead of going along with Easter’s decline, I researched it, and did my best to participate in the rites and customs that had been left behind by the tradition I inherited? It was then, now six years ago, that I first began observing Lent and committed myself to taking Easter seriously. As an ostensibly western protestant I took it upon myself to follow Anglican Lenten practices, and did what I could to adhere to them as closely as possible. As a result, I quickly learned that I got more out of the holiday than I could have ever previously imagined. A holiday season that was often focused primarily on something like running an egg hunt quickly became a time where I found myself truly growing in discipline and my Christian faith, followed by a unique joy when Easter finally arrived, a joy that was never available before I started taking the Easter seriously.
In addition, I began looking into Eastern Lenten practices as well, learning much about how Easter has been traditionally celebrated around the world. I learned of the various debates about the proper date of Easter, and how calling the holiday Easter is a largely English and German phenomenon with Easter being called Pascha or some variation in most other languages.
As a result of this division over the date and name of this feast, Easter is celebrated twice a year and today is Easter for the Eastern Orthodox Church, or as they generally call It, Pascha. Today, the most rigorous fast of the Christian faith ends. The oldest and some of the most beautiful liturgies known to the Church have been performed and the Paschal greeting, and response “Christ is risen! Indeed, He is risen!” in one language or another will be said countless times. The fruit of taking the season seriously will be harvested, and they will enjoy it together.
Due to the ongoing pandemic, the last time I was able to take part in an Easter service was in fact at an Eastern Orthodox Church in 2019, making the timing of this letter uniquely apropos. In 2020 my church like many others was limited to online services, and in 2021 several members of my family were infected with COVID-19 just prior to Easter. We were fortunate that this set of unrelated yet simultaneous infections only led to two hospitalizations and no deaths, but my wife’s cousin Shyamal had severe complications and I’ll ask you to keep him in your prayers as he looks down a long road to recovery. This all made the holiday complicated to say the least, and among other things it delayed this paschal letter.
However, despite these trials, the message I intended for my letter remains the same. Take tradition seriously. As Cryptic Masons we are the guardians of tradition, both allegorically and practically, and any tradition worth keeping is also worth taking seriously. The option of simply going through the motions is always available to you, but you reap what you sow. The oft repeated Masonic platitude that “you get what you put into it” extends not just to Masonry but tradition in general. The cost you pay for not truly investing yourself in the traditions you keep is that they begin to feel pointless, or arbitrary, and whatever good the progenitors of that tradition hoped to produce in you will be lost. In that way you’re cheating yourself in a most serious manner, by throwing amongst the rubbish a valuable gift. When we receive a tradition it is akin to being gifted an elaborate heirloom toolset, with each piece carefully chosen by those who came before us. With this toolset in hand we are given a choice. We can use these tools that have been painstakingly honed over time for their intended purpose and allow them to have a profound impact on our lives, or we can disregard them, as they fall into rust disrepair.
Don’t allow your working tools to rust, put them to good use, and if you received them corroded or broken, clean then, repair them, so they may be passed down for generations to come.
I’ll end this letter with Paschal Troparion, one of the oldest hymns of Christian faith and the one most commonly associated with Orthodox Pascha.
“Christ is risen from the dead, by death trampling death, and to those in the tombs granting life!”
Sung aloud:
English | Bengali
Crysto punuthito hoylo! Shotto è punuthito!
Brandon Mullins
Illustrious Grand Chaplain
Grand Council of Royal &
Select Masons of Michigan