Easter Is an Eight Day Feast

From HPRweb.com:

Since the Second Vatican Council and the Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year, the Church has been emphasizing the importance of celebrating the entire eight days of Easter as solemnities, the highest form of celebration possible.  Still, there seems to be a reluctance on the part of many to emphasize that the celebration of Easter spans a full eight days—from Easter Sunday to the following Sunday, Divine Mercy Sunday.  This eight day period is called the Octave of Easter, ending on Octave Day.  How can we begin to bring light to accepting that Easter is, in fact, an eight day feast?

In fact, for many years prior to the Second Vatican Council, there had been an incorrect movement to suppress the importance of the First Sunday after Easter.  Some missals had gone so far as nicknaming that Sunday, "Low Sunday," incorrectly contrasting it with Easter Sunday. But now, because of various Church documents, traditions, and more recent revelations that Our Lord has given through St. Faustina, such dynamism is helping Christ's Church recover the solemnity of the fullness of Easter.

From the Old Testament, we learn first about the importance of extended celebrations.  Many of the most important feasts that our ancestors celebrated, spanned anywhere from seven to ten days.  The feast that most resembles the eight day celebration of Easter is the Feast of Tabernacles.  We learn, too, from the Gospel account of this feast, that the last day is also very important.  For John tells us: "On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood up and cried out, 'If anyone thirsts, let him come to me; let him drink who believes in me.  Scripture has it: From within him rivers of living water shall flow'" (Jn 7:37-38).

The Gospel accounts that are read on Easter Sunday (cf. Jn 20:1-9), and the following Sunday (cf. Jn 20:19-31), span a one-day and an eight-day period.  The Gospel that is read on Easter Sunday recalls the Resurrection that occurred on that morning; the first part of the Gospel for the following Sunday, the Octave Day of Easter, recalls what happened on the evening of that day.  The last part of that second Sunday's Gospel recalls what happened on the next Sunday.  This perfectly ties in the important events on the day of the Resurrection and the next Sunday.  On Easter Sunday, we focus on the Resurrection.  On the following Sunday, we focus on the first instruction that Jesus gives to his Church through his Apostles, when he miraculously walks through the door in the upper room, and institutes the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Let's recall these words in the first part of that Gospel, where Jesus institutes this sacrament: "Jesus said to them again, 'Peace be with you.  As the Father has sent me, so I send you.'  And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit.  Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.'"

Jesus' last act before his death was the institution of the Holy Eucharist.  The Lord gives us the Sacrament of his body and blood. Then, his very first act after his Resurrection, is the institution of the sacrament to prepare us for this Eucharist by the washing away of our sins.  This was not accidental, nor was the event with St. Thomas on the following Sunday.

Have we failed to see this important connection?  After years of study about the feast that Jesus requested to be established on the Sunday after Easter as the "Feast of Mercy," we can easily see his reasoning.  After years of study, it is quite evident that Jesus was "right on target."  Aren't the Sacraments of Confession and the Eucharist, in fact, the Sacraments of Divine Mercy?

Read the entire essay, "Easter Is an Eight Day Feast", written by Robert R. Allard.