Why cleric says Easter is gift if well used

MOSHI: TANZANIANS , especially those of the Christian faith, are joining their peers around the world to celebrate Easter after 40 days of fasting known as the Lenten period.

Easter is one of the five seasons of the Catholic Liturgical calendar, along with Advent, Christmas, Lent period and Ordinary Time, as par the liturgical calendar.

The Easter celebration is preceded by the Lent period which is a solemn period centred on Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving. While Lent is often associated with the Catholic Faith, many Christians including Protestants and Orthodox also do observe this important period in the Church calendar.

To many Christians, Lent period is the best time to deepen one’s Faith, whereby during this period, Christians do use it (Lent period) to be closer to God while preparing for the joyous celebration of Christ’s resurrection at Easter.

After the Holy Fast of Lent comes the Feast of Easter, which many Christians believe is the greatest Feast in Christianity due to the fact that it commemorates the Redemption of Mankind from sin, which unites Christians with their Creator after the fall into sin.

However, despite its importance, there is still a perception that not many people know the importance of the Easter holiday due to the fact that many consider the holiday just like any other holiday where they need to celebrate it in various ways to please their hearts.

There are others, including the Clergy who understand well the true meaning of Easter, whom they say that it isn’t a good thing to celebrate Easter just as an ordinary celebration and that instead it (Easter) should be celebrated with a heart of great piety, especially given the importance of Easter to humanity and the Church in general.

In his reflection on Easter 2026, Fr Aidan Msafiri of the Catholic Diocese of Moshi, in Kilimanjaro region, says that Easter is a great victory over sin and that this victory is the fulfilment of the Prophets.

“The Prophets described the suffering and resurrection of Jesus Christ more than 7,000 years before the coming of Christ himself and therefore the Resurrection of Jesus Christ which is the main foundation of Easter is a truth beyond any doubt”, says Fr Msafiri.

He adds, “This can be proved also scientifically; an open grave, the image of Jesus Christ in a piece of cloth, his disciples and other followers continued to see him even after his resurrection; according to the holy scriptures, apart from his disciples, more than 500 other people saw Christ, ate with him and he performed many miracles that demonstrated his (Christ) Resurrection”.

“All in all, the truth is that Christ rose and now we have the celebration of Easter which is essentially a good memory that we must use to follow all that Christ did so that we can see eternal life which is the foundation of Christianity since times immemorial; this means we have a responsibility to act as true Christians” he adds.

Fr Msafiri says that Easter demands that we live a new life with Godly thoughts and that each one should have a renewal of family life, faith, politics, love for neighbours, love in marriage and so on.

Another thing he says is that Easter should be the source of everyone to do good things to others, as demands the Christian life, whereby he says that, before someone does something to another, whether good or bad, he or she should know that the person he or she is facing was created by God; everyone should have a statement rooted in his or her heart that says ‘My God’ to show the fear of God and Faith in His Almighty God.

“Easter is the victory of Christ over death in the sense that he came out of the grave, so as we celebrate Easter, it is good that we come out of the graves of fears, false beliefs especially superstitions, graves of hatred, pride, drunkenness, oppression and graves of violence that can endanger the safety and lives of people”, he says.

Fr Msafiri continues to say that Easter calls up on every Christian to invest in Christ who was raised from the dead and that it (Easter) invites him or her to enter into true Christian based love with his or her fellow human beings and that each person should be a blessing to his or her family and society in general.

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He adds, “God has given us the freedom to do what we can to make the world a better place to live, but there are some who misuse that freedom by doing evil things such as slandering others, corruption and so on”.

“Easter and eternal life should remind us that after the Holy Fast of Lent we should strengthen our love to God and our neighbours as well as living with great hopes while relying on God; everyone should live the motto that says do good and forsake evil”, he says.

Fr Msafiri continues to say that Easter should also remind us to use the freedom that God has given us, to do all what we can so as to make the world a better place to live.