NationNews
  • e-paper
    • e-paper
    • e-magazines
  • News
  • Regional
  • Elections
  • Sports
  • World
  • Entertainment
  • classifieds
  • Multimedia
    • Multimedia
    • Podcasts
  • all sections
    • Business
    • Life Style
    • Family Notices
    • Commentary
    • Ticketnation
    • RSS
    • e-publications
    • Politics
    • Contact US
    • Smart Homes
    • Workbook
    • Feature: Owen S Arthur
  • Print Subscription
    • e-paper
      • e-paper
      • e-magazines
    • News
    • Regional
    • Elections
    • Sports
    • World
    • Entertainment
    • classifieds
    • Multimedia
      • Multimedia
      • Podcasts
    • all sections
      • Business
      • Life Style
      • Family Notices
      • Commentary
      • Ticketnation
      • RSS
      • e-publications
      • Politics
      • Contact US
      • Smart Homes
      • Workbook
      • Feature: Owen S Arthur
    • Print Subscription
Go
Commentary
 on March 25, 2016

Go beyond the celebration

Article by FR LESLIE LETT 

A FEW YEARS AGO, when I saw some children enjoying themselves at an Easter party, I asked them if they knew the story of Easter. They all said “yes”, as they told me about Easter bunnies, chocolate eggs, and a fancy hat competition they’d had at school. Those children, without knowing the meaning of Easter, were celebrating it. But then they were children and could be forgiven.

What is difficult to forgive is that today a great many of us adults not only manage to separate meaning from celebration, but we stop at celebration and do not go on to demonstrate an Easter praxis: a newness of life, a new and deeper respect for life, a deeper sense of solidarity and caring, a prophetic hope to challenge the culture of death and hopelessness that threatens to engulf us.

Because, for Christians, the church’s liturgy (that is, its “public work”) always demands that the meaning of a festival should always determine the shape of both its celebration and praxis. This is something the church could and should contribute to our society. It is a crucial part of the evangelisation of culture.

Without this evangelisation, which must start with the church, we shall continue to observe not only Christian festivals, but such major national festivals like Labour Day, Emancipation Day and now our golden anniversary of Independence without them being any more than entertaining (and expensive) “feel good” celebrations.

For these major national festivals to lead to a praxis of genuine liberation and independence, they must be integrated into a mature and honest understanding of our present reality. Not to do this is to short-change ourselves and to pretend that a contrived optimism can take the place of genuine hope.

– FR. LESLIE LETT

Comments are closed.

Cartoon
Facebook
@ Follow me
Tweets
Site Index
  • Home
  • News
  • Business
  • Sports
  • Commentary
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Regional
  • World
  • E-Paper
  • Multimedia
  • Blogs
  • Home
  • News
  • Business
  • Sports
  • Commentary
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Regional
  • World
  • E-Paper
  • Multimedia
  • Blogs
Services
For information about this website or content published please contact the Webmaster or Online Editor, respectively. Regarding press releases please contact the News Room.
Subscribe
Subscribe to NationNews with our Webfeed. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
General Info
  • Home
  • News
  • Business
  • Sports
  • Commentary
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Regional
  • World
  • E-Paper
  • Multimedia
  • Blogs
  • Home
  • News
  • Business
  • Sports
  • Commentary
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Regional
  • World
  • E-Paper
  • Multimedia
  • Blogs
Legal
Copyright © 1997 - , Nation Publishing Co. Limited • P.O. Box 1203, Fontabelle, St. Michael, BB11000, Barbados, West Indies • All Rights Reserved No unauthorized use is permitted of content produced by NationNews.com, The Nation Newspaper or any other publication or media owned by Nation Publishing Co. Limited. Unauthorized use includes framing and direct posting of content on websites other than www.nationnews.com.