The significance of Easter

After asking around amongst friends and acquaintances, it appears that April 1st is not a common or even uncommon date upon which to celebrate Easter.

The irony of having the greatest day of Christianity on April Fools Day is not lost on skeptics who take great pleasure in pointing out that irony to the discomfort to those of us who value to the utmost the person and position of Jesus Christ.

Churches around the world will be crowded, though less so than I remember as a child, with "once a year" visitors who recognize the preeminence of the central figure of this religious holiday we celebrate by hiding eggs evidently laid by cute little bunnies for children to get grass stains on new Easter clothes in their search for such treasures.

Is there a connection between the Easter bunny, Santa Claus, and Thanksgiving being merely the day before the largest shopping day of the year, and 37 dead students in two shootings, a 95-year-old woman bound and bounced around in the trunk of a car, and bombs in Austen? Can it be that when we trivialize the sacred, and cast doubt on their importance to our lives, we also trivialize and make irrelevant the ability and desire to make sound moral choices when faced with "crunch time.”

Indeed, it is so easy to talk the good battle when peace is at hand. It's another matter when faced with self-interest and the "right thing" to do.

That's why Jesus, recognizing that we need a little or a lot of help in this life, could say, "I am the way, the truth, and the life . . ."

That was important enough to die for. . . and to live for. No kidding.