Bishop Joseph Williams remembers rambunctious, joyful celebrations on Easter at his grandmother’s house when he was little. There were abundant pies, egg fights and games with his family members.

But the point of the celebration was always clear to him: it was all about the Resurrection.

“Everything would stop at a certain point, my grandmother would hand out little song sheets, and we would do two or three songs of Easter praise. And everybody was singing from their hearts,” Bishop Williams recalled on this week’s episode of the “Practicing Catholic” radio show.

Easter is the highest feast of the Church — the Church’s celebration lasts 50 days, longer than any other liturgical feast. Catholics ought to celebrate it as such, Bishop Williams said.

“(Easter) is the heart of everything. Every other mystery pales in the face of the Paschal mystery,” the bishop said.

Pope St. John Paul II famously said that Catholics are “Easter people.” But in a world where there is joy and life at the same time as there is suffering and death, it can be difficult to grasp how to be “Easter people” all the time — not just when the going is good.

Bishop Williams said that being “Easter people” means holding joy and sorrow in tandem; to hold together both the crucifixion and the resurrection.

“In spite of it all, Jesus has won the victory. The resurrection is definitive. It brought us into a new realm of life,” he said. “There is still pain, there is still sickness, there is still suffering. And yet all of that is transformed by the Resurrection light.”

In times of suffering, “we know the end of the story,” Bishop Williams said. The “end of the story” is, in fact, resurrection.

“We can never not be Easter people” he said. “From the Resurrection onward, we are Easter people as Christians, and that has to give a glow to everything in our life.”

To hear Bishop Williams provide more insight into the mystery of Easter joy, tune into “Practicing Catholic” when it airs at 9 p.m. April 5 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM, or when it repeats at 1 p.m. April 6 and 2 p.m. April 7.

Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the latest show also includes a discussion with Bishop Andrew Cozzens about the importance of the National Eucharistic Revival. Also, a deacon who will be ordained to the priesthood in May shares his journey and Father Joseph Taphorn, rector of The St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul, talks about priestly formation.

Listen to interviews after they have aired at PracticingCatholicShow.com or choose a streaming platform at Spotify for Podcasters.