VENCES: Rediscovering Easter through the simplicity of Scripture

The risen Christ is depicted in a stained-glass window at St. Anthony of Padua Church in East Northport, N.Y. Easter, the feast of the Resurrection. (OSV News photo/Gregory Shemitz)Over the past couple of years, I have carried a persistent and nagging sense that time is marching on much faster than it used to. 

Older people — older than me, at least — have assured me that this intuition is true: the older one gets, the faster time seems to pass. Friends closer to my age tell me this is simply typical of middle age. Others just look at me, twist their mouths, shrug their shoulders and admit they have no idea what I’m talking about.

St. Augustine, however, gives me some consolation. In “The Confessions,” he famously reflects on time as something mysterious and ineffable, a reality we intuit deeply but struggle to define: “What then is time? If no one asks me, I know what it is. If I wish to explain it to him who asks, I do not know.” 

His words affirm my own experience over these past few years. Time seems both real and elusive, something I feel powerfully and yet cannot quite grasp.

Perhaps because of this sense of time accelerating — or perhaps because Lent always presses these questions upon us — I found myself struggling this year to discover a new way of entering into the Paschal Mystery more deeply. 

My mind reminded me that this would be at least my 35th Holy Week since reaching cognitive maturity. My spirit hoped for something new: a book, an insight, a homily that would carry me through Holy Week feeling refreshed and renewed. Yet, if I’m being honest, I hoped without much expectation.

The pressure intensified when I was invited to share reflections on Easter during a parish mission gathering on Holy Wednesday at Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish. Determined to say something new, fresh and meaningful, I searched and browsed — books, articles and even AI chat boxes. Nothing captured my imagination. As both the date of the talk and the climax of Holy Week drew nearer, anxiety grew. 

And then, a simple question came to me: When was the last time you sat down and read all four canonical accounts of the resurrection?

I couldn’t remember.


Of course, I had heard the resurrection proclaimed from the pulpit year after year, but what usually happened was that, when the Gospel reading began, my mind tried to get ahead of the reading, reconstructing the story on its own until it wandered elsewhere altogether — to the roof of the church, or the movie I planned to see later that evening. Inevitably, I would be jolted back to the present moment only when the community responded, “Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.”

Since reading and reflecting on the resurrection narratives was the best I could come up with, that is exactly what I did with the Immaculate Heart of Mary community. I shared the Gospel accounts, along with my own thoughts and unresolved questions about each Gospel’s resurrection account. 

And, as you might imagine, it connected with many in the room; most ears were attentive, most heads nodded in agreement, and everyone in the room eagerly shared their own thoughts when the time for sharing came. 

There it was — the fresh perspective I had been searching for all along. The mystery drew me in precisely because it was approached in simplicity.

The insight was almost embarrassingly simple: read the Scriptures attentively, reflect on them honestly, share your thoughts with your community of faith and listen to how others encounter the same Word. The simplest answer turned out to be the right one.

Regardless of where your faith intersects with the continuum of time, or whatever language you might prefer to describe that mystery, one truth remains constant: Scripture is the gateway to realities that are both beautiful and timeless. 

In a world that seems to move ever faster, the Word of God patiently waits, ready to make all things new once again.

Miguel A. Vences is an associate director with the Office of Evangelization and Catechesis.