Fr Paddy Byrne: Don’t be too quick to judge others
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SOON, we will enter into the rich tradition of observing Holy Week. A week that embraces every aspect of the human story, from joy to sorrow, despair to hope, from darkness into light. It's wonderful to embrace the brighter evenings, soon our clocks go forward and summertime begins. For millennia, this time of year was observed as a sacred time when light once again triumphed over darkness and what was planted begins to grow and blossom.
These days, the spring equinox (also called the vernal equinox) takes place, occurring around 19-22 March each year. This marks the moment when the sun crosses the celestial equator, making day and night roughly equal in length in both hemispheres. It signals the astronomical start of spring in the northern hemisphere and carries themes of balance, renewal, rebirth, fertility and increasing light. In Christianity, the spring equinox has no direct festival dedicated to it as an astronomical event. However, it plays a key indirect role in determining the date of Easter, Christianity's most important celebration commemorating the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The rule for calculating Easter was established at the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD to standardise the date across churches. Easter falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon (called the Paschal full moon) that occurs on or after the spring equinox. The Church uses a fixed ecclesiastical date of 21 March for the equinox (not always the exact astronomical date, which can vary slightly by 1-2 days). This makes Easter a moveable feast, ranging from 22 March to 25 April.
This lunar-solar calculation ties Easter to the timing of Jewish Passover (which begins on the 15th of Nisan, near the first full moon after the equinox), reflecting Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection occurring during Passover week. Theologically, many Christians see symbolic resonance: the equinox represents balance between light and darkness, while Easter celebrates the triumph of light (Christ's resurrection) over death and darkness, paralleling the shift toward longer days. Christianity engages the spring equinox primarily through Easter's dating system â a deliberate choice to align the celebration of resurrection with cosmic renewal and the ancient.
Traditionally, this time of year we are prompted to make a spring cleaning. Spring cleaning is not just reserved for our homes but, indeed, for our personal lives. Spring cleaning offers an opportunity to renew and allow personal growth and wellbeing to happen. I am reminded of this important task by the following short story: a young couple moved into a new house. The next morning, while they were eating breakfast, the young woman saw her neighbour hanging the washing outside.“That laundry is not very clean; she doesn’t know how to wash correctly. Perhaps she needs better detergent.” Her husband looked on, remaining silent. Every time her neighbour hung her washing out to dry, the young woman made the same comments. A month later, the young woman was surprised to see a nice, clean wash on the line and said to her husband: “Look, she’s finally learned how to wash correctly. I wonder who taught her this?” The husband replied: “I got up early this morning and cleaned our windows.” And so it is with life…what we see when watching others depends on the clarity of the window through which we look. So don’t be too quick to judge others, especially if your perspective of life is clouded by anger, jealousy, negativity or unfulfilled desires. ‘Judging a person does not define who they are. It defines who you are.’
