The Easter Vigil is a liturgy of extraordinary depth and beauty. The solemn proclamation of Easter (Exsultet) unfolds beneath the flaming paschal candle and announces the Risen Christ as the light that dispels all darkness. The expanded Liturgy of the Word traces the awe-inspiring course of salvation history leading to the wondrous event of the Resurrection. The Baptismal Liturgy extends to the recipients of this sacrament the gift of new life in Christ, and welcomes them into his embrace through membership in his Mystical Body, the Church. The liturgy culminates with the sacrament of the Eucharist, in which the Risen Lord renders himself truly present in fulfillment of his promise always to be with us and as food for our journey toward the fullness of life in heaven.
I'd like to focus
briefly upon the Liturgy of the Word proclaimed at the Vigil. The proclamation
of the many Scripture passages is an exercise of what I like to call holy
hindsight. This part of the liturgy looks back over history and sees it anew in
the light of the Resurrection of Jesus. In this light, we see a history of
wondrous and ineffable love. After God created the human family we abandoned
him through sin. Yet he never abandoned us, but walked with us always, intervening
in our history, both collective and personal, in order to draw us back to
himself. When we erred, he did not turn his back on us, but worked to turn all
to our good by transforming our wrong turns into right ones and our mistakes
into blessings. His definitive and decisive intervention is what we celebrate at
Easter. Jesus, the Son of God incarnate, after having taken to himself all of
our sins and dying on the Cross, rises from the grave, triumphant over sin and
death. In this way, he reverses forever the downward trajectory on which our
sin had launched human history.
This holy hindsight
announces the steadfast love and mercy of God as always present and perennially
victorious over evil. In this way, the holy hindsight grounds our hopeful
foresight. We cannot see all that lies before us, but we are certain that in
every event and circumstance our Risen Lord will be there, in the full power of
his resurrection, to love us by guiding us, correcting us, forgiving us and
leading us to eternal life. It is no wonder that our Easter liturgies resound
with "Alleluia!" Christ is truly Risen and with his people. We are
not alone; never alone. Let this conviction banish all fear as we place our
faith fully in our Risen Lord and surrender our lives to him.
