Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Deacon Robert Banet
How come you Catholics are always changing the date of Easter?
We follow the Jewish calculation of Passover. At least, we do so in a way.
Please explain.
The Jews celebrate Passover on the first day after the first full moon after the vernal equinox.
The what?
Vernal equinox. You know the day when spring begins. When the days and nights are of equal length.
All right. But that still says nothing about Easter.
Right. Well, you know that the Last Supper was a Passover celebration and the Lord rose from the dead after three days in the tomb. So we celebrate the Resurrection after the Jewish Passover.
I see.
But there’s more.
Go on.
The Orthodox use a different calculation for Easter. And the Pope said not too long ago that in order to bring the Catholics and Orthodox together, Catholics could accommodate the Orthodox so that we could celebrate Easter on the same day.
You know, that would really be something.
Yes. the Easter calculations has sometimes been a source of division even among Catholic ourselves.
Yes. In the early days there were the Quartodecimans, that’s fourteen in Latin. They said the Resurrection should be celebrated on the fourteenth of the Jewish month Nissan, when the Jews celebrate Passover. And the there’s the Celtic manner….
Hold it right there. I can’t take any more. What you’ve said is enough for me to chew on till Easfer.