It seems that every Catholic institution does something special for Lent. There are penance services and fish fries and rice bowls. My inbox fills with special Lenten reflections.
And then Easter happens, and... it's crickets. Suddenly those special events stop. Christ is risen, but it seems as if it's time to get back to normal.
Maybe we've tried to do so much for 40 days that there's no gas left in the tank to savor the central event of our faith.
Pope Francis has written that “there are Christians whose lives seem like Lent without Easter” and who live as if they always have “just come back from a funeral.”
Something is off. That is not the Christian way.
The answer is neither doing a bunch of activities nor resuming our normal routine as if nothing has happened.
During Easter, we are to sit and savor and rejoice. This is not an ordinary time.