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COMMEMORATION VS REAL TIME: Today Isn’t Easter Real Time
By Dr. Jarlat Uche Opara
There is a sharp and undeniable contrast between Commemoration and Real Time.Though often used interchangeably in everyday speech, they are fundamentally not the same.
Real-time events are immediate, raw, and unrepeatable. They happen once, fully, originally, and without rehearsal.
Commemoration, however, belongs to a different realm. It is not the event itself, but the memory of the event. It is a return, not to relive, something to remember. It preserves significance, not occurrence.
A child is born once, yet every year we celebrate that birth. But in truth, what we are doing is not reliving the birth real time, we are commemorating it. The same logic applies to death. A person dies once, in real time, but every subsequent remembrance is a commemoration.
In this light, it becomes clear that many of the events we call “celebrations” today are, in fact, commemorations.
Take for instance Christmas and Easter. The birth of Jesus happened once in history over 2000 years ago. It was a real-time event then not now.
The resurrection being commemorated during Easter, was also a singular occurrence real time then, but not now.
These events were not cyclical when they happened, they were decisive moments in time.
What we do now, year after year, is not to recreate those events in their original form. Rather, we revisit their meaning. We gather, we sing, we rejoice not because the event is happening again, but because its significance still speaks to hearts that are yielding.
Here lies the subtle beauty of commemoration. Though it is not real time, it creates a real-time experience, not for everyone but the privileged few that understand spiritual matters. It bridges the gap between past and present. Through rituals and expressions, we attempt to make memory breathe again. We cannot bring the event back, but we can bring its meaning forward and make real spiritual impact from them.
It may be accurate to say that Christmas and Easter are not real-time celebrations now, it would be incomplete to dismiss them as mere remembrance. They are living commemorations, moments where the past finds voice in the present.
Real time gives us the event. Commemoration gives us continuity.
One births history.
The other sustains its relevance. And perhaps that is the deeper truth:
We live once in real time, but we are remembered through commemoration.
Though today isn’t Easter real time, however, one can make it a real experience that would change life and destiny. This is done not by being emotionally exaggerative of the activities around the commemoration, rather by seeing through the lenses of the commemoration, the real messages of the season and live them out .
Christ was born over 2000 years ago , died and resurrected over 2000 years ago. He would neither be born or died again however emotionally sucked one is to those commemorations.
What we celebrate today isn’t Easter. Is without mincing word the commemoration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. One however can have an experience deep in spiritual reawakening by yielding to the spirit of the season not by being perfunctory.
When ones life, lifestyle and conducts become a pascal light that illuminates dark and gloomy areas, one would not only commemorate the resurrection but would tap from the spiritual significance it embodies. Though he didn’t resurrect today, one can still through deeper spiritual cognisance resurrect all the virtues that have been comatose due to perennial and compelling sins in ones life. What good and virtuous one makes out of this commemoration is far better than the routine commemoration itself.
Happy Easter commemoration!
Jarlathuche@gmail.com