0:04

First, I want to wish everyone a happy Easter

0:06

Sunday. I hope the weather is great wherever

0:08

you are and you're able to spend time with

0:10

family and friends. I also want

0:12

to wish everyone a happy pass Over. It's

0:15

a wonderful time of the year. And

0:17

on this episode of News World, I wanted

0:19

to focus on the meaning of Easter, the gospel, of

0:21

the history, and why it's relevant to

0:23

our lives today. And I'm really

0:25

pleased to welcome my guests and my good friend,

0:28

Reverend Monsignor Walter Rossi. He

0:31

is the rector of the Basilica at the National

0:33

Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in

0:35

Washington, d C. And we've been friends

0:37

for several decades and he's a remarkable person.

0:51

Thank you for joining me in News World. Thank

0:53

you for having me. I appreciate the opportunity

0:55

to be with you and to speak about this great

0:57

feast of Easter. But I know how amazingly

1:00

as a you are. For those who don't know, the

1:02

Basilica of the National Shrine of Immaculate

1:04

Conception is the largest Catholic

1:06

church in the United States. It is a destination

1:08

for Catholics from all over the country, Monsignor

1:11

Rossi has been an astonishingly effective

1:14

rector and it's a beautiful place which I

1:16

recommend to everyone to come visit

1:19

if they come to Washington. So would

1:21

you take a minute and talk about the

1:23

traditions of Easter Week. Well,

1:25

when it comes to Eastern traditions,

1:28

I guess we could say that everything

1:30

centers around what we would call

1:33

the three Great Days,

1:35

and those are Holy Thursday,

1:38

Good Friday, and Holy Saturday, which

1:40

of course astures in our

1:42

celebration of Eastern On

1:45

Holy Thursday, we have what we

1:47

call the Last Supper,

1:49

Mass of the Last Supper, and at

1:51

that Mass of the Last Supper, we commemorate the

1:54

institution of the Eucharist, the

1:56

priesthood and service which you

1:58

see symbolized by the washing

2:00

of the feet. Of course, on

2:02

Good Friday we speak of the passion

2:05

and death of Jesus and commembrate

2:07

the crucifixion. And then Holy

2:09

Saturday is what

2:11

we call the Vigil of all Vigils,

2:14

or the Mother of all Vigils, as

2:16

it is a celebration of new life and resurrection.

2:19

On Holy Saturday, we begin in darkness.

2:22

The church is completely dark, and then

2:24

there is a new fire lit from

2:27

which the Easter candle is lit, and

2:29

that candle is brought into a darkened church

2:32

with the chant light of Christ,

2:35

which is a symbol of the light of Jesus

2:38

resurrection as well as a symbol

2:40

of our own new life. And then also at

2:42

that mass we bless water,

2:45

often referred to as being the Easter water, and

2:47

that water is used for baptism for

2:49

those becoming Catholic at Easter, and

2:52

then for all of us to are

2:54

baptized to renew our baptismal promises.

2:56

So the Easter is proceeded by

3:00

forty days of Lent? How did that evolve?

3:02

In What is the significance of the forty

3:04

days of Lent in preparation for

3:06

eachure? Well, First of

3:08

all, forty is

3:11

a significant biblical number. Moses

3:14

lived forty years in Egypt and forty years

3:16

in the desert before God selected him to lead

3:18

his people out of slavery. Moses

3:21

also on Mount Sinai for forty days and forty

3:23

knights on two separate occasions when he

3:25

received the Ten Commandments. God's Laws

3:29

recall to that the prophet Jonah

3:31

powerfully warned ancient nineve for

3:34

forty days that its destruction

3:36

would come because it's many sins.

3:39

The great prophet Elijah went for forty days without

3:41

food or water i Mount Horeb. And

3:44

during Lent we reflect on

3:46

the temptation of Jesus by the devil during the

3:48

forty days and forty knights he fasted just

3:50

before his ministry began. And

3:53

then recall two that Jesus

3:55

appeared to the disciples and others for

3:57

forty days after his resurrection

4:00

and from the dead. So how should

4:02

we take the forty days? In that

4:04

sense? What is the Church's advice

4:07

to parishioners in

4:09

terms of dealing with Lent than

4:11

the nature of that forty days? Well,

4:14

the Church for the forty days of Lent recommends

4:17

what we call the traditional practices

4:19

of Lent, prayer, fasting, and works of

4:21

mercy. The fasting is

4:24

to deny ourselves of something,

4:27

we abstaining from meat on Fridays,

4:30

and by fasting and by

4:32

abstaining, we are meant to

4:34

empty ourselves and

4:37

allow God to fill that empty space.

4:40

And so with

4:42

Lent. As we go through these forty

4:44

days of prayer, fasting, and works of mercy,

4:47

they all contribute to our developing

4:49

a deeper and closer relationship with God, which

4:52

culminates in the celebration of Easter

4:54

Sunday. How did the early Church

4:57

celebrate Easter? When did this evolve as

5:00

central event of the Church? Well,

5:02

I think the obvious answer is

5:06

Easter Sunday itself. Jesus rose from the dead. That's

5:08

the first celebration. Christian celebrate

5:10

the victory of Jesus

5:13

living over dying, and

5:16

that this is basically the central

5:18

tenant of Christianity. Like

5:21

every other celebration of the Church, the

5:23

liturgical observance, the church observance

5:25

of Easter developed over time. The

5:27

early Church celebrated Easter on

5:30

every Sunday, and we

5:32

first hear of the Christian celebration of Easter

5:35

as we know today around the year

5:37

one seventy from a man named Melito,

5:40

same Melito of Sardis, which is

5:42

now in Turkey, not far

5:44

from Anchora. Literally, in the early days,

5:47

every Sunday was a celebration

5:50

of the risen Christ. It certainly

5:52

was, and every Sunday still is. That's why we refer

5:55

to every Sunday as being a little

5:57

Sunday. But rather than celebrating

5:59

Easter Sunday every Sunday, as the early

6:01

Church did, over the time.

6:03

It was changed so that outside

6:06

of Easter Sunday, every Sunday

6:08

of the year would be a time for us to reflect

6:11

on other aspects of Jesus's life, which

6:13

is what we still do today. So how

6:15

does Passover fed into the tradition

6:17

of Easter. I think it's important first to

6:19

remember that Jesus did

6:21

not celebrate Easter with his disciples, but

6:24

he celebrated the Passover, which we

6:26

began this past Wednesday and concludes

6:28

this coming Thursday on April thirteenth.

6:32

Passover commemorates celebration of the people

6:34

of Israel from Egyptian slavery. The

6:36

Jews celebrated Passover every year on

6:38

the fourteenth day of the spring month

6:41

of Nissan. And if

6:43

we look at the Gospels, the evangelist

6:45

Matthew Mark and Luca report

6:47

that Jesus was crucified

6:50

on the main day of Passover. Anthologians

6:52

are of the opinion that jesus

6:54

last supper can be dated to

6:57

the eve of the Passover. So

7:00

you think, in Christ's own

7:02

view, he was bringing

7:04

together the New and the Old Testament by

7:07

the act of having dinner one

7:09

Passover. Well, having

7:12

dinner, I'm passover, bringing the

7:14

Old and New Testament together. Perhaps is

7:16

not his idea, but he was

7:18

bringing the old into the new, what

7:21

we call now the new dispensation.

7:24

Passover actually relates

7:26

to the fact that Easter changes

7:28

every year the day it changes, as I understand

7:31

it, that goes all the way back to then

7:33

I see an ecumenical council in three twenty

7:35

five AD. That's correct. They

7:37

picked how to celebrate it exactly basically

7:40

according to an ancient customer, that of

7:42

Easter, just like Passover, is

7:45

calculated by the moon, and so

7:47

Easter Sunday always falls on the first

7:49

Sunday after the first full moon of

7:52

the spring equinox, and so

7:54

looking at it that way, we follow

7:56

the Gregorian calendar, and

7:58

so Easter has usually between March

8:01

twenty second at the earliest and then April

8:03

twenty fifth at the latest. So this is

8:05

an eighteen hundred year old principle.

8:08

Yes, it gives you a sense of the historicity

8:10

of the Church. All of our traditions as a

8:12

church go back centuries and centuries

8:15

and centuries. If you just think of something simple

8:17

like the way we celebrate Mass, that

8:19

goes back to the Apostolic tradition and

8:22

what we do today is not much different then.

8:25

Or for Catholics who go

8:27

to Mass on Sunday or during the week

8:29

or whatever, they always like the

8:33

christoph peryer number two, which is the shortest,

8:35

That's why they like it. But though and behold

8:37

that prayer is the oldest prayer we have, goes

8:39

back to three hundreds as well. Would it

8:42

be fair to say that Peter and

8:44

Paul were routinely celebrating Mass.

8:46

I would say, not routinely celebrating Mass.

8:49

The celebration of Mass as we know it has developed over

8:52

time, and recall to that

8:54

in the early Church, Mass

8:57

was celebrated as a part of a regular

9:01

and so people got together at

9:03

people's homes. That's why the churches at

9:05

one point called the Domus ecclazier, and

9:08

they got together people's homes, they had a

9:10

meal, and then afterward they

9:13

celebrated Mass, very

9:15

simply, perhaps proclaiming

9:17

the scriptures, which would be verbal at that point

9:19

because they weren't written down yet, giving

9:21

a homily or an instruction, and

9:24

then breaking the bread and blessing

9:26

the chalice. But because some

9:28

celebrations got a little out of hand before

9:31

the Mass, as sometimes

9:33

they do today, in people's lives at dinner.

9:36

They separated the dinner from

9:39

the mass. I've always been fascinated

9:41

with this earliest period where

9:44

the Church is spreading at an astonishing

9:47

speed. The first hundred

9:49

years or so, you have people

9:51

who are very, very intense, and

9:54

who are spreading the Word at

9:57

a rate that is phenomenal. They

9:59

were inspired, fired, they were empowered,

10:01

They were on fire and fired with the Holy Spirit.

10:04

They were the first witnesses, and they

10:06

were the ones commissioned by Jesus to go and proclaim,

10:08

and they did just that. Now, after

10:11

the resurrection, we're back to forty days again,

10:13

because his ascension into heaven his

10:16

forty days after his resurrection

10:19

correct and in a sense that's the

10:22

vital period where all of the disciples

10:25

realize this really is the son of God.

10:27

Well, we could say that for the

10:30

forty days after Easter, Jesus

10:32

appeared to the disciples, he confirmed

10:35

from them that he was alive, that

10:37

he wasn't a ghost or a figure of their imagination.

10:40

He affirmed them in their faith, and

10:42

then he commissioned them to continuous mission.

10:45

And also recall that our

10:48

celebristion of Easter is fifty days,

10:51

and so we have ten days after Jesus

10:54

ascends into heaven and

10:56

then we have Pentecost, and Pentecost

10:58

is when the Holy Spirit came upon the apostles, and

11:01

that's when they began their abasolic ministry.

11:04

And that's why we often refer to Pentecost

11:06

as being the birthday of the Church, because

11:08

that's the point where this Holy Spirit comes down

11:11

and they're suddenly empowered to go everywhere. Exactly

11:14

in your understanding, is

11:17

when they have the Last Supper together. Is

11:20

that, in a sense the first Mass. Yes,

11:24

it was the first Mass because at

11:26

the Last Supper, Jesus instituted

11:28

the Eucharist, the sacrament of his body

11:30

and blood, when he told his disciples

11:33

take and eat this is my body. Taken,

11:35

drink this is my blood, which

11:38

is what we do right now at every Mass

11:40

two thousand years later. And in that sense,

11:44

Easter is the central moment

11:46

of the Church, because if Easter

11:48

is not real, the Church makes no sense at all.

11:50

So it's actually more important maturgically

11:53

than Christmas. Yes, it is

11:56

no question about it. I mean, it's important that Jesus was

11:58

born, but it's more important that he

12:00

suffered, died, and rose from the dead, and

12:02

the words of saying, Augustine, take away the

12:04

resurrection and you destroy

12:06

Christianity. Resurrection is

12:08

a central event of Christianity. If Jesus

12:11

did not rise from the dead, then we would have

12:13

no religion or have it. This conversation at

12:15

all, you've

12:32

had an enorous impact of men. Of course, Clista

12:35

sang at the Basilica for I

12:37

think sixteen years and is

12:40

now on your board and busily working

12:42

away at art at the Basilica. But

12:44

I'm curious, and I think people are listening to this will

12:47

be curious. How did you end up becoming

12:49

a priest? Well, I can

12:51

say that since I was in the second grade,

12:53

I wanted to become a priest. My

12:56

family was always very involved in the church. I

12:59

had a great uncle who was a Franciscan

13:01

priest. On my father's side, I had

13:03

a cousin who since deceased, who's also

13:06

a priest, my father's sister's son,

13:09

and we were always involved

13:11

in the life of the church. And so I think

13:13

that that involvement in the life of the church is

13:15

what led me to

13:19

basically be touched by the Lord. So

13:22

this is in the second grade, in the second

13:24

grade, and it always stayed

13:26

with me. No matter what I did. I

13:29

obviously went to high school and college. In college,

13:31

I worked toward an accounting degree

13:33

because my father has an accounting firm. And

13:36

it always came back to me that this is

13:38

not what I wanted. What I wanted it was to be a

13:40

priest, and so eventually I went to the

13:42

seminary. Now you were up around Scranton,

13:45

right. I am still a priest of Scranton,

13:47

Pennsylvania. But I've been on loan to

13:49

the Shrine since nineteen ninety seven,

13:52

so that's a big change, huge change.

13:54

But I've been here for a good number of years

13:56

now and it's a great ministry,

13:58

a great place, and I

14:01

could not be happier. And you've

14:03

met all the last three popes, is that right? I

14:06

have? The sixteenth came

14:08

to the shrine, Hope Francis

14:10

came to the shrine, and I met

14:13

Pope John Paul the Second in Rome

14:15

on several occasions, which must

14:17

be an amazing experience. Meeting the popes

14:19

in general, as you have done yourself, is

14:22

an awesome experience and

14:24

is sometimes almost surreal. It's

14:27

like you have to say, am I really doing this? Hope?

14:30

John Paul the Second was perhaps

14:33

the most enamoring because he

14:35

was always in another world in the sense

14:37

that he was a very spiritual

14:39

man, and when you were in his presence, you knew you were in the presence

14:41

of holiness. There was no question about it. You always,

14:45

always, always, And Pope

14:47

Benedict the sixteenth was a gracious,

14:49

gracious man and as you yourself, no,

14:51

Pope Francis is full of life. Yeah,

14:54

that's astonishing to have

14:56

the opportunity to actually be

14:59

with a pope and as a part of

15:01

all this at the National Shrine,

15:04

it's an amazing institution. Can you talk

15:06

to us a little bit about the remarkable

15:08

history of the Shrine. Well, first

15:11

of all, I think it's important to point out

15:13

that the National Shrine is the

15:15

largest Catholic church in North America.

15:18

We often spoken of as being America's

15:21

patronal church because we

15:23

were established by the Bishops of the United

15:25

States following the sixth Council

15:27

of Baltimore when they declared Mary under

15:30

the title of the Bactic Conception, the Patroness of

15:32

the United States. And so starting

15:35

in nineteen ten is when my

15:37

predecessor, as director of the first Rector of the Shrine,

15:40

Bishop Thomas Shayan, traveled

15:42

to Rome to see Pope Pius the tenth and ask

15:44

his blessing to proceed in

15:46

building a national monument

15:48

in honor of our leading and so

15:52

Holy Father not only gave his permission,

15:54

but he gave the first donation to build the shrine, which

15:56

at that point was four hundred dollars, which

15:59

was also a lot of money back in nineteen

16:01

fourteen. It was built in stages.

16:04

When you go there today, this is magnificent,

16:06

totally gorgeous building. But

16:08

they actually had I guess as a function of money

16:11

raising, they just gradually built the

16:13

building over a long period of time. Well,

16:15

that's very true. We began in

16:17

nineteen twenty with the laying of the foundation

16:20

stone, and then

16:22

when the depression came nineteen

16:24

thirty one, everything stopped and

16:26

then it was halted until nineteen

16:29

fifty four. And so the shron

16:32

was built in two stages. The lower level, which

16:34

we call the crypt church, was built between nineteen twenty

16:36

and nineteen thirty one, and

16:38

then the upper church was built between

16:41

nineteen fifty four and nineteen fifty

16:43

nine. But realistically it

16:45

came to a completion back

16:48

in twenty seventeen, when

16:50

we install the Trinity dome, which was the last part

16:52

of the upper church to be adorned with

16:54

mosaic art. Then you were, in fact director

16:57

for that process. I was. I became rector

16:59

of the shrine in two thous and for

17:01

anybody who can visit, it's really

17:04

almost like visiting both a place of worship,

17:06

but it's also a little bit like an art museum.

17:08

And the number of different beautiful things

17:11

you have. Yes, we have the largest

17:13

collection of mosaic art in the country.

17:15

The Mosaic of Christ looking

17:17

out over the church is just stunningly

17:20

big. That is believed to be one of the largest

17:22

mosaics of Christ and the world.

17:24

Actually, I recommended highly to all

17:26

of our folks, to the people who will be listening

17:29

with us on Easter Sunday,

17:31

what is it you hope they

17:34

take away in their life from

17:37

the celebration of Easter. I have to confess when

17:39

I was very young, I grew up in Humblestound,

17:41

which was three miles from Hershey, and a major

17:44

part of my youth was at Easter represented

17:46

chocolate bunnies, and

17:49

at the time the chocolate bunnies were very big and

17:51

it was a shock to me years later to realize that

17:53

as I had grown, the bunnies had not beyond

17:58

the chocolate bunnies and the Easter eggs. What

18:00

is it you would hope people would

18:02

be able to find

18:04

in themselves as they celebrate

18:07

this Easter. Well, let me just say

18:09

two things. Going back, first to your Easter bunny

18:11

and your Easter eggs, know that

18:13

the Easter egg itself is a

18:15

symbol of Easter, not

18:18

just commercial purposes or for candy

18:20

purposes, but because the

18:23

egg, as it's cracked open, brings

18:25

forth new life, and Easter is

18:27

all about new life. And so, especially in

18:30

the Eastern churches, you

18:32

will find paupiftly decorated eggs

18:34

at Easter time, quite often that

18:36

are opened up with a symbol

18:39

or a statue of others in Christ in it. So

18:41

the Easter eggs are not just for commercial purposes or

18:43

for candy, but it also

18:45

is part of that symbol of new life. That's what Easter

18:47

is all about. The message of Easter does

18:49

not change. Jesus

18:52

rose from the dead victorious over

18:54

sin and death, so that we two

18:56

can be victorious over everything in life,

18:59

sin ultimately death. But

19:02

any of our difficulties are problems. Easter

19:04

also gives us new hope as

19:07

we move forward, and the strength and the confidence

19:10

to move forward. In a sense, it really

19:12

is the moment of revival. It's the moment

19:14

of new life. Yes, very much

19:16

so well, we will be celebrating

19:18

with you, and we are thrilled,

19:21

frankly to have you as a friend and to be able

19:23

to worship with you. And I do encourage

19:25

everybody listening if you had a chance to come to

19:27

Washington, you will find some time

19:29

spent at the Shrine deeply,

19:32

deeply rewarding. And I

19:34

know how busy you are this week, so I want to thank you for

19:36

joining me on news World and for sharing your

19:39

thoughts on the meaning of Easter. For all of

19:41

our listeners, well, thank you for having me,

19:43

thank you for your friendship and your goodness to the Shrine,

19:45

and I renew your invitation to folks

19:47

who are listening to please come and visit us if you're in Washington.

19:50

It will be time well spent both in

19:52

prayer and in visiting. Thank

19:58

you to my guests, rever monsignor

20:00

Walter Rossi. You can learn more about

20:02

the basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate

20:04

Conception on our showpage

20:06

at Newtsworld dot com. NEWT

20:09

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