The Feasts That Follow Easter
Before ascending to the Father, Jesus told his disciples to “wait for “the promise of the Father…the Holy Spirit” (see the first reading for the Ascension). In my Sunday homily, I spoke of how the disciples used their time while they waited for the Holy Spirit. We are presently in this time of waiting between the Ascension of Jesus and Pentecost.
Our celebration of Pentecost will end our Easter Season. Next Monday we will return to Ordinary Time but that does not mean we forget what we have celebrated this Easter season. Every time, no matter what time of year it is, we celebrate Mass, we are celebrating the paschal mysteries. Every time we celebrate Mass, we are celebrating the saving death and resurrection of Jesus. This is what Easter is about. It is what our faith is all about.
To help us remember this, even though we will return to Ordinary Time next Monday (this year we return to Ordinary Time on May 25th), in the coming weeks we will have five liturgical feasts at Mass that are connected to Easter and the timing of when we celebrate these feasts is directly tied to Easter.
The first of the five feasts, the Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church (here are the readings), is the newest of the five feasts. On Sunday we celebrate Pentecost as the birth of the Church. In 1975, our Catholic Church began to celebrate an optional votive Mass for Mary as mother of the Church. In 1980, Pope St. John Paul II declared “Mother of the Church” as another title for Mary. In 2018, Pope Francis decreed that the Monday after Pentecost is to be celebrated as an obligatory Memorial, Mary, Mother of the Church (for more on the origins of Mass for Mary as Mother of the Church from Vatican News click here).
There are Protestants who misunderstand our veneration of Mary who might want to use the Memorial of Mary, Mother of the Church, as another example of Catholics worshipping Mary. We do not worship Mary. We worship only God. We venerate Mary. Calling Mary the Mother of the Church has biblical origins. We read in John 19:26-27, “When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.” John is known as the beloved disciple but we are all beloved by Jesus. When Jesus gave Mary to John as his mother, Jesus shared her with all of us as our mother, thus establishing her as the mother of the Church. So, first celebrating the birth of the Church at Pentecost, we then celebrate Mary as the Mother of the Church.
The next of the five feasts to be celebrated is the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. This solemnity celebrates the perfect union between the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It was first celebrated as a votive Mass around 800 A.D. Pope John XXII established it as a feast in 1334. We now celebrate it each year on the Sunday after Pentecost. This year it falls on May 31st this year. Why tie this solemnity to Easter? Easter is the most important time of the year for our faith. If you read the Nicene Creed, you will find the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit to be central to the words we profess in the Creed. The Trinity is a central mystery of our faith. All three persons of the Trinity are involved in the mysteries we celebrate in the Easter season.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states, “The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christian faith and life. It is the mystery of God in himself. It is therefore the source of all the other mysteries of faith, the light that enlightens them. It is the most fundamental and essential teaching in the “hierarchy of the truths of faith” (234). (click here for more on this feast from Vatican News)
The third of the five feasts that follow Easter is the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, aka Corpus Christ. In some places, this solemnity is celebrated on the Thursday after the Solemnity of the Most Trinity. In the United States, we celebrate it on the Sunday after the Trinity. It was first celebrated as a feast in 1207 with Pope Urban IV evaluating its status in 1264, confirmed by Pope Clement V in 1312. Celebrating the solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ after the Easter season is over connects what we celebrate at Mass every day of the year to what we celebrate in the Easter mysteries (for more on Corpus Christi click here).
The fourth of the five feasts tied to Easter celebrated in the days following Pentecost is the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. We celebrate this feast in the United States the Friday after the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. This solemnity received new attention in Pope Francis’ 2024 encyclical, Dilexit Nos, on the Sacred Heart of Jesus. I know this encyclical brought me to a new understanding and appreciation of the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus (you can find my thoughts at https://renewaloffaith.org/the-sacred-heart-of-jesus/). This year, as we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States of America, the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus is at the center of our Catholic efforts to pray for our nation (see USCCB, We Hold These Truths) and consecrate our nation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. (For more on the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus from Vatican News click here)
It is the love of Jesus that we experience in the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus that saves us from our sins and gives us his Body and Blood in the Eucharist. The day after we celebrate the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, we celebrate an optional memorial, the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Again, it is Jesus’ love that saves us from our sins but Mary as the mother of the Church has a special love for us. To be the mother of Jesus, she was conceived without sin. So, her heart is immaculate, without sin, and she always says yes to God.
I hope this article helps you understand that everything we celebrate in the Easter season and the paschal mysteries does not end when the Easter Season ends on Pentecost. Jesus loves us every day with the fire of the love found in his Sacred Heart. He offers us food for our souls every time we celebrate Mass, and Mary is always watching over us as the Mother of our Church.
Peace,
Fr. Jeff