iFeliz Pascua! - Happy Easter!

I grew up in Mexico, and Easter Sunday there was very different than the Easter we celebrated in the U.S. once we moved here.

There were no Easter egg hunts, no Easter bunnies, no gifts, no candy, none of that. What was exciting to me as a young girl about Easter were three things: I got to wear a new white dress (although I was not too fond of dresses, the fact that it was new was exciting!); I got to be one of the people that carried flowers up to the altar in the procession when the lights were turned on in the church, and the Easter Vigil fire used to light the Paschal candle. The fire and the candle always intrigued me. Alpha and Omega: the beginning and the end. I remember, even as a little girl, knowing this was something pretty cool, if God could be my beginning and my end.

However, as I grew up there were years when I took this time for granted. I forgot how cool I thought the Easter fire was. I just went with the motion of following the Catholic traditions my mother had drilled into me. My focus was going to church with the family and also celebrating that I had survived Lent without eating whatever it was that I gave up that year (hoping I had lost a few pounds, which was the real reason I gave it up). But last year Lent was a bit different for me. I was tired of living in the future and I wanted to take time to slow down and savor my present.

I manage to keep a schedule very full of activities, running around from one gathering to the next, from work to class, etc. But often times, when I was not busy figuring out directions to the next event on my agenda, I was desperately trying to figure out what my future would look like. I spent valuable time running in circles in my thoughts, pondering what I was meant to do in life. But instead of taking action, my thoughts always ended in frustration, anxiety, and sadness. Lent was a time I used to slow down and focus. I wanted to allow time to chat with God and ask Him for help. When the Easter celebration came around, I knew that my longing for something deeper had been lifted with Christ as I celebrated his Resurrection.

This year I found myself looking forward to Easter once again because I have seen myself grow from the previous year. It is no longer about losing those extra pounds by giving up chocolate. Easter is slowly becoming as exciting for me as it was when I used to be a little girl but with an added meaning.

Easter is an opportunity to dress up because I will be celebrating the resurrection of Jesus with the community, an opportunity to carry up to the altar the fruits of my hard labor and sacrifices during Lent, and a renewed interest in the fire and the candle as a symbol of a personal encounter with a loving God, whom I desire to be my beginning and my end.

I pray that this Easter we can take it back to the innocence of our youth and become as excited as we used to be with the little pleasures of life. But I also pray that we combine that excitement with the wisdom of our years and acknowledge when we need to slow down, focus, and ask God for help so that we may allow Him to resurrect within us this Easter Sunday.

by Yolanda Rodriguez

(Yolanda is a 2009 Catholics on Call alumna. She is a graduate student and full-time employee of University of Illinois at Chicago, majoring in Youth Development.)

(Image by: http://freechristimages.org)