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Speaker 1: First, I want to wish everyone a happy Easter Sunday.

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Speaker 1: I hope the weather is great wherever you are and

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Speaker 1: you're able to spend time with family and friends. I

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Speaker 1: also want to wish everyone a happy pass Over. It's

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Speaker 1: a wonderful time of the year. And on this episode

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Speaker 1: of News World, I wanted to focus on the meaning

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Speaker 1: of Easter, the gospel, of the history, and why it's

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Speaker 1: relevant to our lives today. And I'm really pleased to

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Speaker 1: welcome my guests and my good friend, Reverend Monsignor Walter Rossi.

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Speaker 1: He is the rector of the Basilica at the National

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Speaker 1: Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, d C. And

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Speaker 1: we've been friends for several decades and he's a remarkable person.

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Speaker 1: Thank you for joining me in News World. Thank you

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Speaker 1: for having me. I appreciate the opportunity to be with

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Speaker 1: you and to speak about this great feast of Easter.

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Speaker 1: But I know how amazingly as a you are. For

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Speaker 1: those who don't know, the Basilica of the National Shrine

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Speaker 1: of Immaculate Conception is the largest Catholic church in the

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Speaker 1: United States. It is a destination for Catholics from all

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Speaker 1: over the country, Monsignor Rossi has been an astonishingly effective

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Speaker 1: rector and it's a beautiful place which I recommend to

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Speaker 1: everyone to come visit if they come to Washington. So

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Speaker 1: would you take a minute and talk about the traditions

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Speaker 1: of Easter Week. Well, when it comes to Eastern traditions,

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Speaker 1: I guess we could say that everything centers around what

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Speaker 1: we would call the three Great Days, and those are

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Speaker 1: Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday, which of course

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Speaker 1: astures in our celebration of Eastern On Holy Thursday, we

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Speaker 1: have what we call the Last Supper, Mass of the

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Speaker 1: Last Supper, and at that Mass of the Last Supper,

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Speaker 1: we commemorate the institution of the Eucharist, the priesthood and

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Speaker 1: service which you see symbolized by the washing of the feet.

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Speaker 1: Of course, on Good Friday we speak of the passion

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Speaker 1: and death of Jesus and commembrate the crucifixion. And then

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Speaker 1: Holy Saturday is what we call the Vigil of all Vigils,

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Speaker 1: or the Mother of all Vigils, as it is a

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Speaker 1: celebration of new life and resurrection. On Holy Saturday, we

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Speaker 1: begin in darkness. The church is completely dark, and then

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Speaker 1: there is a new fire lit from which the Easter

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Speaker 1: candle is lit, and that candle is brought into a

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Speaker 1: darkened church with the chant light of Christ, which is

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Speaker 1: a symbol of the light of Jesus resurrection as well

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Speaker 1: as a symbol of our own new life. And then

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Speaker 1: also at that mass we bless water, often referred to

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Speaker 1: as being the Easter water, and that water is used

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Speaker 1: for baptism for those becoming Catholic at Easter, and then

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Speaker 1: for all of us to are baptized to renew our

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Speaker 1: baptismal promises. So the Easter is proceeded by forty days

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Speaker 1: of Lent? How did that evolve? In What is the

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Speaker 1: significance of the forty days of Lent in preparation for eachure? Well,

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Speaker 1: First of all, forty is a significant biblical number. Moses

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Speaker 1: lived forty years in Egypt and forty years in the

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Speaker 1: desert before God selected him to lead his people out

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Speaker 1: of slavery. Moses also on Mount Sinai for forty days

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Speaker 1: and forty knights on two separate occasions when he received

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Speaker 1: the Ten Commandments. God's Laws recall to that the prophet

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Speaker 1: Jonah powerfully warned ancient nineve for forty days that its

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Speaker 1: destruction would come because it's many sins. The great prophet

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Speaker 1: Elijah went for forty days without food or water i

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Speaker 1: Mount Horeb. And during Lent we reflect on the temptation

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Speaker 1: of Jesus by the devil during the forty days and

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Speaker 1: forty knights he fasted just before his ministry began. And

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Speaker 1: then recall two that Jesus appeared to the disciples and

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Speaker 1: others for forty days after his resurrection and from the dead.

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Speaker 1: So how should we take the forty days? In that sense?

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Speaker 1: What is the Church's advice to parishioners in terms of

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Speaker 1: dealing with Lent than the nature of that forty days? Well,

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Speaker 1: the Church for the forty days of Lent recommends what

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Speaker 1: we call the traditional practices of Lent, prayer, fasting, and

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Speaker 1: works of mercy. The fasting is to deny ourselves of something,

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Speaker 1: we abstaining from meat on Fridays, and by fasting and

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Speaker 1: by abstaining, we are meant to empty ourselves and allow

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Speaker 1: God to fill that empty space. And so with Lent.

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Speaker 1: As we go through these forty days of prayer, fasting,

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Speaker 1: and works of mercy, they all contribute to our developing

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Speaker 1: a deeper and closer relationship with God, which culminates in

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Speaker 1: the celebration of Easter Sunday. How did the early Church

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Speaker 1: celebrate Easter? When did this evolve as central event of

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Speaker 1: the Church? Well, I think the obvious answer is Easter

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Speaker 1: Sunday itself. Jesus rose from the dead. That's the first celebration.

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Speaker 1: Christian celebrate the victory of Jesus living over dying, and

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Speaker 1: that this is basically the central tenant of Christianity. Like

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Speaker 1: every other celebration of the Church, the liturgical observance, the

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Speaker 1: church observance of Easter developed over time. The early Church

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Speaker 1: celebrated Easter on every Sunday, and we first hear of

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Speaker 1: the Christian celebration of Easter as we know today around

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Speaker 1: the year one seventy from a man named Melito, same

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Speaker 1: Melito of Sardis, which is now in Turkey, not far

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Speaker 1: from Anchora. Literally, in the early days, every Sunday was

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Speaker 1: a celebration of the risen Christ. It certainly was, and

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Speaker 1: every Sunday still is. That's why we refer to every

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Speaker 1: Sunday as being a little Sunday. But rather than celebrating

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Speaker 1: Easter Sunday every Sunday, as the early Church did, over

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Speaker 1: the time. It was changed so that outside of Easter Sunday,

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Speaker 1: every Sunday of the year would be a time for

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Speaker 1: us to reflect on other aspects of Jesus's life, which

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Speaker 1: is what we still do today. So how does Passover

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Speaker 1: fed into the tradition of Easter. I think it's important

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Speaker 1: first to remember that Jesus did not celebrate Easter with

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Speaker 1: his disciples, but he celebrated the Passover, which we began

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Speaker 1: this past Wednesday and concludes this coming Thursday on April thirteenth.

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Speaker 1: Passover commemorates celebration of the people of Israel from Egyptian slavery.

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Speaker 1: The Jews celebrated Passover every year on the fourteenth day

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Speaker 1: of the spring month of Nissan. And if we look

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Speaker 1: at the Gospels, the evangelist Matthew Mark and Luca report

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Speaker 1: that Jesus was crucified on the main day of Passover.

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Speaker 1: Anthologians are of the opinion that jesus last supper can

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Speaker 1: be dated to the eve of the Passover. So you think,

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Speaker 1: in Christ's own view, he was bringing together the New

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Speaker 1: and the Old Testament by the act of having dinner

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Speaker 1: one Passover. Well, having dinner, I'm passover, bringing the Old

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Speaker 1: and New Testament together. Perhaps is not his idea, but

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Speaker 1: he was bringing the old into the new, what we

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Speaker 1: call now the new dispensation. Passover actually relates to the

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Speaker 1: fact that Easter changes every year the day it changes,

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Speaker 1: as I understand it, that goes all the way back

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Speaker 1: to then I see an ecumenical council in three twenty

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Speaker 1: five AD. That's correct. They picked how to celebrate it

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Speaker 1: exactly basically according to an ancient customer, that of Easter,

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Speaker 1: just like Passover, is calculated by the moon, and so

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Speaker 1: Easter Sunday always falls on the first Sunday after the

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Speaker 1: first full moon of the spring equinox, and so looking

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Speaker 1: at it that way, we follow the Gregorian calendar, and

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Speaker 1: so Easter has usually between March twenty second at the

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Speaker 1: earliest and then April twenty fifth at the latest. So

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Speaker 1: this is an eighteen hundred year old principle. Yes, it

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Speaker 1: gives you a sense of the historicity of the Church.

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Speaker 1: All of our traditions as a church go back centuries

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Speaker 1: and centuries and centuries. If you just think of something

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Speaker 1: simple like the way we celebrate Mass, that goes back

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Speaker 1: to the Apostolic tradition and what we do today is

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Speaker 1: not much different then. Or for Catholics who go to

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Speaker 1: Mass on Sunday or during the week or whatever, they

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Speaker 1: always like the christoph peryer number two, which is the shortest,

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Speaker 1: That's why they like it. But though and behold that

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Speaker 1: prayer is the oldest prayer we have, goes back to

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Speaker 1: three hundreds as well. Would it be fair to say

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Speaker 1: that Peter and Paul were routinely celebrating Mass. I would say,

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Speaker 1: not routinely celebrating Mass. The celebration of Mass as we

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Speaker 1: know it has developed over time, and recall to that

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Speaker 1: in the early Church, Mass was celebrated as a part

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Speaker 1: of a regular and so people got together at people's homes.

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Speaker 1: That's why the churches at one point called the Domus ecclazier,

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Speaker 1: and they got together people's homes, they had a meal,

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Speaker 1: and then afterward they celebrated Mass, very simply, perhaps proclaiming

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Speaker 1: the scriptures, which would be verbal at that point because

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Speaker 1: they weren't written down yet, giving a homily or an instruction,

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Speaker 1: and then breaking the bread and blessing the chalice. But

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Speaker 1: because some celebrations got a little out of hand before

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Speaker 1: the Mass, as sometimes they do today, in people's lives

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Speaker 1: at dinner. They separated the dinner from the mass. I've

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Speaker 1: always been fascinated with this earliest period where the Church

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Speaker 1: is spreading at an astonishing speed. The first hundred years

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Speaker 1: or so, you have people who are very, very intense,

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Speaker 1: and who are spreading the Word at a rate that

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Speaker 1: is phenomenal. They were inspired, fired, they were empowered, They

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Speaker 1: were on fire and fired with the Holy Spirit. They

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Speaker 1: were the first witnesses, and they were the ones commissioned

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Speaker 1: by Jesus to go and proclaim, and they did just that. Now,

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Speaker 1: after the resurrection, we're back to forty days again, because

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Speaker 1: his ascension into heaven his forty days after his resurrection

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Speaker 1: correct and in a sense that's the vital period where

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Speaker 1: all of the disciples realize this really is the son

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Speaker 1: of God. Well, we could say that for the forty

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Speaker 1: days after Easter, Jesus appeared to the disciples, he confirmed

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Speaker 1: from them that he was alive, that he wasn't a

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Speaker 1: ghost or a figure of their imagination. He affirmed them

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Speaker 1: in their faith, and then he commissioned them to continuous mission.

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Speaker 1: And also recall that our celebristion of Easter is fifty days,

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Speaker 1: and so we have ten days after Jesus ascends into

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Speaker 1: heaven and then we have Pentecost, and Pentecost is when

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Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit came upon the apostles, and that's when

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Speaker 1: they began their abasolic ministry. And that's why we often

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Speaker 1: refer to Pentecost as being the birthday of the Church,

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Speaker 1: because that's the point where this Holy Spirit comes down

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Speaker 1: and they're suddenly empowered to go everywhere. Exactly in your understanding,

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Speaker 1: is when they have the Last Supper together. Is that,

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Speaker 1: in a sense the first Mass. Yes, it was the

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Speaker 1: first Mass because at the Last Supper, Jesus instituted the Eucharist,

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Speaker 1: the sacrament of his body and blood, when he told

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Speaker 1: his disciples take and eat this is my body. Taken,

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Speaker 1: drink this is my blood, which is what we do

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Speaker 1: right now at every Mass two thousand years later. And

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Speaker 1: in that sense, Easter is the central moment of the Church,

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Speaker 1: because if Easter is not real, the Church makes no

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Speaker 1: sense at all. So it's actually more important maturgically than Christmas. Yes,

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Speaker 1: it is no question about it. I mean, it's important

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Speaker 1: that Jesus was born, but it's more important that he suffered, died,

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Speaker 1: and rose from the dead, and the words of saying, Augustine,

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Speaker 1: take away the resurrection and you destroy Christianity. Resurrection is

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Speaker 1: a central event of Christianity. If Jesus did not rise

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Speaker 1: from the dead, then we would have no religion or

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Speaker 1: have it. This conversation at all, you've had an enorous

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Speaker 1: impact of men. Of course, Clista sang at the Basilica

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Speaker 1: for I think sixteen years and is now on your

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Speaker 1: board and busily working away at art at the Basilica.

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Speaker 1: But I'm curious, and I think people are listening to

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Speaker 1: this will be curious. How did you end up becoming

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Speaker 1: a priest? Well, I can say that since I was

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Speaker 1: in the second grade, I wanted to become a priest.

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Speaker 1: My family was always very involved in the church. I

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Speaker 1: had a great uncle who was a Franciscan priest. On

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Speaker 1: my father's side, I had a cousin who since deceased,

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Speaker 1: who's also a priest, my father's sister's son, and we

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Speaker 1: were always involved in the life of the church. And

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Speaker 1: so I think that that involvement in the life of

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Speaker 1: the church is what led me to basically be touched

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Speaker 1: by the Lord. So this is in the second grade,

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Speaker 1: in the second grade, and it always stayed with me.

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Speaker 1: No matter what I did. I obviously went to high

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Speaker 1: school and college. In college, I worked toward an accounting

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Speaker 1: degree because my father has an accounting firm. And it

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Speaker 1: always came back to me that this is not what

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Speaker 1: I wanted. What I wanted it was to be a priest,

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Speaker 1: and so eventually I went to the seminary. Now you

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Speaker 1: were up around Scranton, right. I am still a priest

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Speaker 1: of Scranton, Pennsylvania. But I've been on loan to the

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Speaker 1: Shrine since nineteen ninety seven, so that's a big change,

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Speaker 1: huge change. But I've been here for a good number

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Speaker 1: of years now and it's a great ministry, a great place,

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Speaker 1: and I could not be happier. And you've met all

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Speaker 1: the last three popes, is that right? I have? The

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Speaker 1: sixteenth came to the shrine, Hope Francis came to the shrine,

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Speaker 1: and I met Pope John Paul the Second in Rome

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Speaker 1: on several occasions, which must be an amazing experience. Meeting

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Speaker 1: the popes in general, as you have done yourself, is

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Speaker 1: an awesome experience and is sometimes almost surreal. It's like

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Speaker 1: you have to say, am I really doing this? Hope?

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Speaker 1: John Paul the Second was perhaps the most enamoring because

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Speaker 1: he was always in another world in the sense that

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Speaker 1: he was a very spiritual man, and when you were

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Speaker 1: in his presence, you knew you were in the presence

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Speaker 1: of holiness. There was no question about it. You always, always, always,

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Speaker 1: And Pope Benedict the sixteenth was a gracious, gracious man

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Speaker 1: and as you yourself, no, Pope Francis is full of life. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's astonishing to have the opportunity to actually be with

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Speaker 1: a pope and as a part of all this at

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Speaker 1: the National Shrine, it's an amazing institution. Can you talk

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Speaker 1: to us a little bit about the remarkable history of

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Speaker 1: the Shrine. Well, first of all, I think it's important

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Speaker 1: to point out that the National Shrine is the largest

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Speaker 1: Catholic church in North America. We often spoken of as

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Speaker 1: being America's patronal church because we were established by the

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Speaker 1: Bishops of the United States following the sixth Council of

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Speaker 1: Baltimore when they declared Mary under the title of the

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Speaker 1: Bactic Conception, the Patroness of the United States. And so

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Speaker 1: starting in nineteen ten is when my predecessor, as director

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Speaker 1: of the first Rector of the Shrine, Bishop Thomas Shayan,

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Speaker 1: traveled to Rome to see Pope Pius the tenth and

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Speaker 1: ask his blessing to proceed in building a national monument

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Speaker 1: in honor of our leading and so Holy Father not

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Speaker 1: only gave his permission, but he gave the first donation

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Speaker 1: to build the shrine, which at that point was four

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Speaker 1: hundred dollars, which was also a lot of money back

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Speaker 1: in nineteen fourteen. It was built in stages. When you

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Speaker 1: go there today, this is magnificent, totally gorgeous building. But

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Speaker 1: they actually had I guess as a function of money raising,

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Speaker 1: they just gradually built the building over a long period

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Speaker 1: of time. Well, that's very true. We began in nineteen

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Speaker 1: twenty with the laying of the foundation stone, and then

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Speaker 1: when the depression came nineteen thirty one, everything stopped and

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Speaker 1: then it was halted until nineteen fifty four. And so

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Speaker 1: the shron was built in two stages. The lower level,

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Speaker 1: which we call the crypt church, was built between nineteen

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Speaker 1: twenty and nineteen thirty one, and then the upper church

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Speaker 1: was built between nineteen fifty four and nineteen fifty nine.

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Speaker 1: But realistically it came to a completion back in twenty seventeen,

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Speaker 1: when we install the Trinity dome, which was the last

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Speaker 1: part of the upper church to be adorned with mosaic art.

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Speaker 1: Then you were, in fact director for that process. I was.

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Speaker 1: I became rector of the shrine in two thous and

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Speaker 1: for anybody who can visit, it's really almost like visiting

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Speaker 1: both a place of worship, but it's also a little

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Speaker 1: bit like an art museum. And the number of different

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Speaker 1: beautiful things you have. Yes, we have the largest collection

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Speaker 1: of mosaic art in the country. The Mosaic of Christ

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Speaker 1: looking out over the church is just stunningly big. That

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Speaker 1: is believed to be one of the largest mosaics of

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Speaker 1: Christ and the world. Actually, I recommended highly to all

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Speaker 1: of our folks, to the people who will be listening

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Speaker 1: with us on Easter Sunday, what is it you hope

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Speaker 1: they take away in their life from the celebration of Easter.

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Speaker 1: I have to confess when I was very young, I

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Speaker 1: grew up in Humblestound, which was three miles from Hershey,

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Speaker 1: and a major part of my youth was at Easter

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Speaker 1: represented chocolate bunnies, and at the time the chocolate bunnies

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Speaker 1: were very big and it was a shock to me

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Speaker 1: years later to realize that as I had grown, the

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Speaker 1: bunnies had not beyond the chocolate bunnies and the Easter eggs.

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Speaker 1: What is it you would hope people would be able

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Speaker 1: to find in themselves as they celebrate this Easter. Well,

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Speaker 1: let me just say two things. Going back, first to

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Speaker 1: your Easter bunny and your Easter eggs, know that the

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Speaker 1: Easter egg itself is a symbol of Easter, not just

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Speaker 1: commercial purposes or for candy purposes, but because the egg,

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Speaker 1: as it's cracked open, brings forth new life, and Easter

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Speaker 1: is all about new life. And so, especially in the

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Speaker 1: Eastern churches, you will find paupiftly decorated eggs at Easter time,

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Speaker 1: quite often that are opened up with a symbol or

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Speaker 1: a statue of others in Christ in it. So the

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Speaker 1: Easter eggs are not just for commercial purposes or for candy,

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Speaker 1: but it also is part of that symbol of new life.

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Speaker 1: That's what Easter is all about. The message of Easter

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Speaker 1: does not change. Jesus rose from the dead victorious over

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Speaker 1: sin and death, so that we two can be victorious

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Speaker 1: over everything in life, sin ultimately death. But any of

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Speaker 1: our difficulties are problems. Easter also gives us new hope

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Speaker 1: as we move forward, and the strength and the confidence

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Speaker 1: to move forward. In a sense, it really is the

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Speaker 1: moment of revival. It's the moment of new life. Yes,

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Speaker 1: very much so well, we will be celebrating with you,

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Speaker 1: and we are thrilled, frankly to have you as a

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Speaker 1: friend and to be able to worship with you. And

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Speaker 1: I do encourage everybody listening if you had a chance

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Speaker 1: to come to Washington, you will find some time spent

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Speaker 1: at the Shrine deeply, deeply rewarding. And I know how

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Speaker 1: busy you are this week, so I want to thank

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Speaker 1: you for joining me on news World and for sharing

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Speaker 1: your thoughts on the meaning of Easter. For all of

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Speaker 1: our listeners, well, thank you for having me, thank you

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Speaker 1: for your friendship and your goodness to the Shrine, and

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Speaker 1: I renew your invitation to folks who are listening to

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Speaker 1: please come and visit us if you're in Washington. It

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Speaker 1: will be time well spent both in prayer and in visiting.

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Speaker 1: Thank you to my guests, rever monsignor Walter Rossi. You

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Speaker 1: can learn more about the basilica of the National Shrine

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Speaker 1: of the Immaculate Conception on our showpage at Newtsworld dot com.

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Speaker 1: NEWT World is produced by Gingwish Street sixty and iHeartMedia.

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Speaker 1: Our executive producers Garnsey Slow, our producers Rebecca Howe, and

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Speaker 1: our researcher is Rachel Peterson. The artwork for the show

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Speaker 1: was created by Steve Penley. Special thanks to the team

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Speaker 1: at Gingwish Street sixty. If you've been enjoying newts World,

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Speaker 1: I hope you'll go to Apple Podcast and both rate

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Speaker 1: us with five stars and give us a review so

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Speaker 1: others can learn what it's all about. Right now, listeners

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Speaker 1: of news World consigner from my three free weekly columns

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Speaker 1: at gingwish Street sixty dot com slash newsletter, I'm newt Gingrich.

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Speaker 1: This is newts World