Did you get up Monday morning a little bummed out that you didn’t make more of Easter?
- Maybe you could have paid a little more attention at Mass.
- Maybe you could have visited someone – or at least called them. Did you fail to reach out to a parent, another relative or friend who would have enjoyed hearing from you?
Whatever the reason, are you regretting your indolence now?
If so, we’ve got good news for you: Easter isn’t over. The window to do things right for Easter hasn’t closed on you. In fact, when it comes to Easter, we’ve only just begun.
The full Easter season runs for 50 days from Easter Sunday through Pentecost Sunday, inclusive. That means Easter isn’t over until May 15 of this year.
And when it comes to fulfilling our Easter Duty, we have until Trinity Sunday, which is the Sunday after Pentecost. So that window is open until May 22.
A leadership perspective
The Easter Season is also important from a leadership perspective because, as you recall, Jesus’ apostles were not exactly paragons of loyalty or competence while Jesus suffered on the cross and died. We can’t even give them credit for claiming his body and placing it in a tomb after he died.
Indeed, if it hadn’t been for the women who were devoted to Jesus and went to his tomb to anoint his body after the sabbath, there’s no telling when the apostles would have learned of Jesus’ resurrection.
And yet, when Jesus encounters them, he doesn’t yell, “You’re fired!” Instead, he tells them, “Peace be with you.”
A rich harvest
Then he continues to teach them as he had before his passion and death. By the time he ascends into heaven 40 days later, he confidently entrusts his mission to them – promising them he will send his Spirit to be with them always.
Ten days later they experience the miracle of Pentecost, when the Spirit descends on them as tongues of fire and they begin their active ministries as full-fledged leaders. Peter, who had denied even knowing Jesus just 52 days before, is so full of confidence that his preaching brings three thousand people to baptism.
Beginning with Pentecost, the apostles were so committed and confident that, according to tradition, all but one of the faithful 11, in company with latecomer Mathias, died as martyrs. The other, John, brother of James, devoted his life in service to Jesus’ Great Commission (Mat 28:19).
Keeping in mind how Jesus’ apostles were transformed as leaders by Jesus’ instruction, prayer and the Spirit during what we now observe as the Easter Season, there’s no better time to focus on our own prayer lives and growth on becoming Jesus-like Leaders.
Why not celebrate the 50 days of the Easter Season by focusing on deeper adoption of a habit and deliberately adding a brief daily period of prayer and study that will help you be a better Jesus-like Leader?
Lord knows we need more of them.