The curious thing is that often when Easter arrives, all these plans and resolutions get shelved until the following Ash Wednesday. Then a question arises: How can we best live the Easter season? Forty days of reflection and purification have ended, so how can we live the next 50 days of joy and gladness?

“Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the LORD, your God” (Jl 2:13). It is that simple and that difficult at the same time, because there is no Easter without the longing for God’s newness, without desiring a new life with a new heart. This isn’t about minor repairs, but a radical change within ourselves. The problem is that we don’t think we need a conversion or a new heart.

So let’s look at five practical and very beneficial steps to open our hearts, to become the “poor in spirit,” for they receive a pure heart capable of seeing God.

1. Anamnesis

This is the exercise of remembering our history as the chosen people. During the Easter Vigil, texts from the Old Testament are read because, upon hearing the story of the chosen people fleeing Egypt and being freed from Pharaoh, our conscience can be illuminated. We must ask ourselves: What is our Egypt? Who is the Pharaoh in our lives? What are the chains that weigh us down? This exercise leads us to sanctification by recalling the works of God. What emerged from the desert and from exile was “a people humble and lowly, who shall take refuge in the name of the LORD” (Zep 3:12).

2. Connection

Another reading during Passover is about the Babylonian exile. At that time, the Jewish people learned, importantly, that it is not enough to simply remember history and the past. An explanation is necessary to apply it to the present. They learned this in the only meeting place they had during the exile, without temples or homes in which to gather and offer sacrifices. That meeting place was the Word. They gathered around it, and from there arose the synagogues, which means “walking together.” A good homily is a connection of the Word and history, one that bridges what God did with what God is doing.

These two tools are not enough, though. The problem is that the harvest of “pharaohs” in our lives never ends. Even in our time, there are usurpers who try to take God’s place, new idols that want to compete with the Most High and new strategies of darkness. 

The enemy of humanity doesn’t surrender easily. Deep down, the devil’s strategy remains the same, he just changes his mask and his name. The greatest chain of all time is the promise made to Adam and Eve: “You will be like gods” (Gn 3:5). Our enemy paints this chain in every hue and promises freedom, happiness, fame, money, power, beauty and more The chain becomes more cunning, making us believe we are freer when we are actually more enslaved. 

The first thing we manage to see is the external “pharaoh,” a condition we all share as human beings. It’s when we say the problem and blame lie outside ourselves. That’s why we need the next step.

3. Contrition

It takes a journey, progress and growth to realize that the “pharaohs” are not outside, but within ourselves. The discovery of an inner pharaoh was a revelation for the Jewish people and is found in the Book of Baruch (1:10-2:10). It took centuries to reach this inner awareness, and its culmination is repentance without excuses. Contrition is when we fully accept our guilt, without pointing a finger at anyone else. The day we receive true contrition, we experience an outpouring of grace into our hearts to feel genuine sorrow for our sins without excuses or transference of blame. Contrition is the tool that allows us to understand that the problem lies within us. If our contrition is sincere, then we will achieve the fourth step.

4. Renouncement

With contrite hearts, we begin to renounce false alliances — those vices and pleasures, invocation of spirits, deceptions, etc., that prevent us from surrendering ourselves into the arms of God. When did the Hebrews learn to break with false alliances? During their exile. It was a precious time when they learned that false idols degrade and destroy. Then, they understood their need for the Word of God and the homily, they recognized their sins and repented wholeheartedly. The enemy is behind every idol, so the key question for us to renounce false alliances is: Where am I placing my trust?

5. Desire

All of this will culminate in the desire for a new heart. If our hearts hunger for money, power, fame, esteem, a thousand and one things other than God, then we need a new one. For this, we must yearn for the Lord’s presence. We must hunger and thirst for God, saying, “My soul rests in God alone, from whom comes my salvation. God alone is my rock and salvation” (Ps 62:2-3). 

May we, throughout the Easter season, desire a new heart so that when Christ comes in his glory he will say to us, “I make all things new” (Rv 21:5). With a “rended” heart, one that expects everything from the Lord, we find the true inner preparation we need to live Easter.