On Easter, my father was the first one dressed, and he would stand patiently outside in a patch of shade on a broiling Miami morning, smoking a cigar and checking his watch.
Inside, chaos prevailed with my mother applying thick coats of hairspray to her baby-fine hair, while my sister hunted down patent leather shoes — and yours truly pilfered chocolates from my basket.
My sister and I were decked out in new fluffy dresses with hats generously trimmed with pastel flowers. At Mass, our stomachs rumbled in anticipation of the Italian feast our mother had prepared for the big day.
Did we truly know what Easter was all about? Did we understand that Jesus had undergone a brutal beating, a humiliating coronation and a horrific death?
Did we grasp that he had actually died and been buried — and then returned to life?
In fact, we did, because children more easily embrace the Gospels than do adults with hardened hearts. Which is why little ones are so crucial to the stories.
After all, God entered the world as a helpless baby, when he could have shown up as a full-grown man.
And at a time when children were the lowest rung of society, Jesus promised them the kingdom — while adults needed a gigantic change of heart to get there.
For me, the Beatitudes largely describe a child — meek, clean of heart, poor in spirit, hungering for justice. And how appropriate that when Jesus — the Lamb of God — rode into Jerusalem, flocks of children cried out, “Hosanna to the son of David!”
When my goddaughter was a little girl decked out in a fluffy Easter dress and a pastel hat, I pointed out a looming crucifix in church — upon which the pierced figure of Jesus hung.
“The bad guys did that,” she told me.
She was right because even the smallest child knows the innocent suffer on earth — and there must be another realm where good guys triumph and villains get their comeuppance.
And this may explain why children relish a story ending with “living happily ever after.” They expect dragons to be vanquished and valiant warriors to triumph.
The Easter story has the ultimate happy ending that every heart desires. The one who was scourged, humiliated and lacerated shrugs off the burial cloths and emerges from the tomb.
Jesus said, “Anyone who welcomes a little child on my behalf is welcoming me.” Truths that remain hidden to the wise and learned, he added, are revealed to children.
In my Miami childhood, ruffled dresses and chocolates were a big part of Easter — but my sister and I understood why the church exploded with the perfume of lilies and soaring cries of alleluia.
We knew our own stories would ultimately have happy endings. And no matter how bad things might get — and even if the worst thing happened — we would triumph.
