It sounds crazy, but I honestly love Easter more than Christmas! To understand why, let’s rewind six weeks to 22 February 2023, Ash Wednesday; the start of Lent. It’s not a period seen as a diet for Catholics where we ‘give things up’ because they’re high in sugar content. It’s a beautiful season of purification; a time of realigning our hearts and reprioritising our lives again around God.

The three key ‘activities’ of Lent include fasting, almsgiving and prayer.

Fasting is the practice of abstaining from foods or luxuries which we may have become attached to. You can abstain from anything; food, social media, frivolous talk, driving unnecessarily, etc. By doing this, we realise that much of what we consume is out of greed, boredom, addiction, distraction and not out of necessity. Through fasting we are called to live a simpler life, and in experiencing both physical and spiritual hunger, we are more inclined to turn to God Who is the true fulfilment of our deepest desires. 

Almsgiving simply involves giving to those in need. Catholics are encouraged to give more of their time, energy and money to the poor. This is a reminder that God’s call to follow Him is not simply a personal, private reality, but an invitation to serve others and love as God loves, i.e. generously, selflessly and unconditionally.

Prayer is what gives our fasting and almsgiving true value. Without prayer, fasting is just a diet and almsgiving is just an impersonal act of charity.  When I feel hungry, I am reminded to pray for someone in need. When I give to charity, I am reminded to pray for those who suffer. Prayer is what characterises Christian action. 

Saying all of this, I must remember every year that Lent isn’t some kind of religious endurance test where the strongest Catholic wins.  It isn’t the ‘Iron Man’ of the spiritual life. Through my Lenten commitments to fast, give and pray, I usually fail several times.  Lent reminds me of my own weakness rather than my own strength but this is a good thing.  It’s good because it reveals to me my need for God, and in doing so it increases my desire for Him.  It keeps me humble, rather than being puffed up with religious pride.   

A ‘successful’ Lent reminds me that I am not perfect, but that I am loved and empowered by God regardless.  Lent reminds me that I am not able to ‘save myself’ and that I can only be the person I truly want to be when I embark on that journey in partnership with God and His grace.   

This leads us to why I love Easter. It is the Christian feast which remembers the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Jesus experienced the worst of mankind. He was betrayed, humiliated, abandoned, tortured, unjustly accused, mocked and eventually executed.  However, Jesus also revealed the power of God when, early on that first Easter Sunday morning, he overthrew these powers of darkness and rose again. 

Jesus – who Christians believe is fully God and fully human is God and humanity mystically fused together.  Therefore, His death is, in a profound way, my death too.  His resurrection is, somehow my resurrection too.  In Jesus, humanity has been given new horizon. 

This is why I love Easter.  It reminds me that, despite my humanity, my imperfections are not the full story.  God is able to overcome even my greatest weaknesses – death itself.  I can fail, but the Christian life is not about being ‘good enough’, but about being caught up in the saving action of Christ on the cross.  This is the hope of every baptised Christian, and why the Church has shared the story of Easter since the first Easter Sunday two thousand years ago.  

Chocolate, anyone?  

Hannah Hayward is the Coordinating Lay Chaplain at Leeds Trinity University.