Fifty years or so ago, it was popular to teach that every Sunday is a “Little Easter.” Today, after several decades of intense liturgical reform, it is more proper to think of today as a “Big Sunday.” On every Sunday of the year, the Church is obliged to assemble, keeping the day holy. In most places, we hardly attain the goal of gathering all who are in Christ by baptism. Look around today and see what a Big Sunday looks like!

“We are witnesses!” The scripture readings for Easter Sunday concentrate on details reported by eyewitnesses. Listen carefully and you will be drawn into the stories yourself. Peter reports the good works Jesus did, his death on the cross, and his resurrection.

What day is today? Ask most folks strolling home from church today and they will reply “Palm Sunday.” Not too long ago, today was known as the “Second Sunday of the Passion,” and in 1970 it was renamed “Passion Sunday.” This made some sense, since the procession recalling Christ’s entry into Jerusalem is usually only celebrated once in a parish on this day, but the Passion is proclaimed solemnly at every liturgy.

The word “passion” connotes deep, focused engagement. It also relates to passivity, interestingly. The deeply passionate person in the Gospel narrative from Luke is Jesus. He appears passive, but He is not. He is wholly self-possessed and wholly present for the one day that begins on Thursday evening at His last meal with His apostles and ends with His burial before sunset the next day. Then follows the long Sabbath silence.

“God writes straight with crooked lines,” the saying goes. The power of Paul’s testimony that everything is junk but knowledge of Jesus and the power of His resurrection is a straight enough message. And, God knows, Paul had a crooked journey before his blinding insight straight from God.