Eastern & Western Holy Weeks

The dispute over the proper Pascha, over Easter was once a major issue in The Church. The issue arose over solar and lunar calendars. The West used The Gregorian Calendar, which used the sun for time of day, days, and months, and year while The Eastern Churches used The Julian Calendar which used the moon. What inevitably happened is as the church split, so did the celebrations, so while Good Friday was April 3rd for Western Churches, the Eastern Churches are celebrating on April 10th.

We could become dismayed that the whole Church family around the world is not unified and celebrating Passion Week and Easter at the same time. One could echo the words of our Lord Emmanuel, “I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message. I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.” (John 17:20-21). And I believe one day when the Antichrist rises and all Christians are persecuted we will be unified. Until then I think having separate Western and Eastern days to celebrate the High Holidays of our faith is a good thing. It gives us a chance if we desire to prolong the celebration, or even if necessary have a redo. Maybe your Western Easter was chaotic, spent in ER, or was when you felt distracted. Well good news you have a do over! You can when its no t so hectic and so much pressure from family and expectations from church family. You can then focus solely on the Passion and Resurrection of Christ, communing with Him when its not your cultures week to celebrate Easter. You maybe Eastern, and you can use the Western Dates to really plug into His presence because on your dates there will be a lot of preparation, cooking, and gatherings.

Being able to extend meditating on Christ’s Passion is a real gift. My Easter was very chaotic, so I am going to take this chance to celebrate Eastern Easter on April 13th, and even spend some time this Eastern Good Friday, April 10th thinking about how loving our God is, that He reconciled us on the cross and not only paid our debt of sin, but took our place of punishment (Propitiation) and we Christians need not fear the Wrath of God,

“Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God,” (Romans 5:9). Amen.

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