VATICAN - Rev Nicola Bux: Orthodox Easter

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - The Eastern Rite Churches, Orthodox and Catholics alike, celebrate Easter on Sunday, April 27. Why an entire month after our own celebration of the feast? The Council of Nicea, held in 325, discussed and defined the “Easter matter,” among those who wished to celebrate the feast according to the Gospel of St. John, which situates Christ death on the afternoon of the 14th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan (followers of this opinion were called quartodecimani); and those who followed the other three Evangelists, who situate the event on the 15th, that is, coinciding with the Hebrew feast of Pessach.
In spite of the difficulties, the Church “univocally” celebrated Easter from 387 until 1582, when the Patriarch of Constantinople, Jeremiah II, rejected the calendar reformed by Pope Gregory XIII. Although since then, Easter has never returned to the univocal celebration - excluding the years when the calendars coincide - in both celebrations, one can certainly see common and specific aspects.
The liturgy of the Eastern Rite emphasizes the fast on Holy Saturday and the Vigil, in which there is a great emphasis on the light and on the scriptural readings; the rites of Christian Initiation with the blessing of the water and baptism are not so frequent and they are carried out in January, on the feast of the Theophany, or the Lord’s Baptism, on our feast of Epiphany. An important rite, leit motiv of the Byzantine Easter, takes place on Holy Saturday in the doorway of the Church, where the celebrant sings, “Christ is risen from the dead, by death He conquered death, and to those in the graves He granted life.” At the same time, the cross touches the doors of the Church, which begin to open. The bells toll, the candles in everyone’s hands shine their light, while the Paschal Canon of Saint John Damascene is sung. It is a work that corresponds to the Latin Exsultet, attributed to Saint Ambrose.
An interesting observation: the rite of opening the doors with the touching of the cross, sign of Christ opening the doors of the underworld, was also present in the ancient rite, before the Holy Week reform of Pius XII. Ecumenism ante litteram, as it could be reinserted into the Latin Rite, prior to entering the church with the Paschal Candle. This would be a significant act, in resonance with the particular attention that Benedict XVI has given to the reestablishing of the liturgical tradition, and it would also be appreciated by the Orthodox as a concrete sign of “drawing nearer” as Christians. It could also, perhaps, facilitate the task presented in Vatican II, in trying to find a common date for the celebration of Easter “with our brethren who are separated from the communion with the Apostolic See” (cfr Appendix of the Liturgical Constitutions, n. 1) (Agenzia Fides 25/4/2008; righe 35, parole 475)