What Easter Weekend Means in 2022

Easter weekend, 2022, is going to be different than the last two Easter weekends. But it will also be the same.

It will be different because the state of the pandemic is different that in 2020 and 2021, when COVID restrictions kept most of us from getting together with family or friends. If we did get together it was mostly outdoors, maybe in a garage with the wide door open, and masks were still worn and social distancing was still going on.

This year, with most people vaccinated, most masks off, and most mandates gone, and the number of hospitalizations and deaths way down, it’s different. Even with an uptick in new infections in some states, there’s not the worry there was.

But this Easter weekend is also different because there is a war and the largest refugee crisis both going on in Eastern Europe since World War II. None of us a year ago were thinking about such a terrible event going on this Easter weekend.

Ukrainian president Zelensky, in a speech to his nation, said this week that during the 50 days of war, Ukraine has become a hero for the whole world.

President Biden this week called Russian President Putin’s war a war of genocide.

And in Rome, Pope Francis this week, Holy Week for Christians, called for an Easter truce in Ukraine. But that is unlikely.

Yet maybe it’s a good time for Easter to come. Just as it did when thousands of people were dying from COVID-19, what this holiday is all about...new life...brought us hope that the pandemic would end.

And now with thousands of Ukrainian civilians dying at the hands of brutal Russian forces, in a country that is known for its churches and it’s past suffering in other wars, Easter still brings hope that there can be a better future ahead.

And during this Easter weekend, there will be millions of prayers being said for that to happen.

(Photo Getty Images)