Great Easter article — Wall Street Journal
Great Easter article -- The Wall Street Journal
Greetings to you in Eastertide,
Easter Sunday afternoon, I happened across this really great article in the Wall Street Journal from March 2016 on social media. I recommend it to you as very relevant and thought-provoking as we begin the journey from The Sunday of the Resurrection to Pentecost.
Blessings,
Glenn +
By James Martin, SJ.
When was the last time you felt stressed out by Easter? So much Easter shopping to do, so many Easter cards to write, so many Easter gatherings to attend. Not to mention the endless stream of Easter commercials on television and online, the nearly unavoidable Easter-themed movies and all those tacky Easter sweaters that you’re forced to wear every spring. And don’t forget the travails of setting up the annual Easter tree and stringing Easter lights on your house.
Every year you lament how overly commercialized Easter has become. Can the holiday get any more money-oriented? You feel that way every year, don’t you?
Of course you don’t.
That is because Easter has stubbornly resisted the kind of commercialization, commodification and general crassification that long ago swallowed up the celebration of Christmas, at least in the U.S. Here’s a confession: It’s reached the point where I have begun to, yes, dread the Christmas season, and it can be fairly stated that I now dislike Christmas. By that I mean the commercial complex that has grown up around the holiday. (The Feast of the Nativity is another story that I love.)
So how has Easter—with some notable exceptions, like ever-expanding Easter baskets with more and more expensive gifts for the kids—maintained its relative religious purity?
Mainly, I would say, because of its subversive religious message: Christ is risen.
read the full article from WSJ. Note: There is a limit to the number of times this can be viewed by individuals without a subscription.