April 3, 2010
The Resurrection of the Lord at the Easter Vigil in the Holy Night of Easter
Piety
Dear Lord, risen Lord, light of the world, to you be all praise and glory! This day, so full of your presence, your joy, your peace, is indeed your day.
I just returned from a walk through the dark woods. It was cool and windy, but everything spoke of you. Everything: the clouds, the trees, the wet grass, the valley with its distant lights, the sound of the wind. They all spoke of your resurrection; they all made me aware that everything is indeed good. In you, all is created good, and by you all creation is renewed and brought to an even greater glory than it possessed at its beginning.
As I walked through the dark woods at the end of this day, full of intimate joy, I heard you call Mary Magdalene by her name and heard how you called from the shoes of the lake to your friends to throw out their nets. I also saw you emerging from the closed room where your disciples were gathered in fear. I saw you appearing on the mountain and at the outskirts of the village. How intimate these events really are. They are like special favors to dear friends. They were not done to impress or overwhelm anyone, but simply to show that your love is stronger than death.
Oh Lord, I know now that it is in silence, in a quiet moment, in a forgotten corner that you will meet me, call me by name and speak to me a word of peace. It is in my stillest hour that you become the risen Lord to me.
Dear Lord, I am so grateful for all you have given me this past week. Stay with me in the days to come.
Bless all who suffer in this world and bring peace to your people, whom you loved so much that you gave your life for them. Amen.
(By Henri J. M. Nouwen in A Cry for Mercy: Prayers from the Genesee, p.70-71)
Study
As the Vigil Mass begins in darkness, we listen in awe to as creation story ignites around us with sparks flying through this night each one holding the hope of salvation history, the themes of Lent and the precepts of a short course in Christianity. It only takes a spark to get a fire going. Maybe the vigil Mass can be considered a spark to light a summary of what we learned in our youth through the “Baltimore Catechism.” I like to think of it as a Cursillo packed into one Mass.
“Let there be light.” From the blackness of Genesis, the spark once again brings daybreak as it does to every dark night of the soul. It is morning in Jerusalem, in Rome, in America and wherever two or more are gathered to run to the gravesite, to roll away the stone, to enter the tomb.
As our servant-leader Jesus was put to the test following his Holy Thursday seder with the disciples, God puts Abraham (and us) to the test. The father of our faith responded by offering to the Lord his fully aware and involved presence. “Here I am, Lord!” Are we ready to do the same? Abraham emerges from the test to be spared the sacrifice of his son. As day breaks from on high, Jesus emerges from the test of life and the test of death to be ever-present in our lives. Can we respond with our own declaration of “Here I am, Lord?”
Our Lenten season began with the story of Jesus being tested in the desert and ended with his being tested by denial, betrayal, trial, torture and execution. We can not emerge from tests that pale in comparison without the support of others. The third reading of this dawning vigil reminds us that whether it is an angel of the Lord, a member of our family or a prayer partner, all of us need assistance to rise up out of the dryness of the desert and overcome the obstacles to the friendship of Christ so that we can live in the presence of the Lord.
Isaiah has accompanied us throughout Lent when the teachings of this prophet were featured prominently in the readings. Isaiah has not abandoned us while we endure the three days of the tomb. He remains with us in darkness, a sign of everlasting hope, ready to celebrate the Resurrection. No matter what we’ve done in the past, are doing now or will do in the future, Isaiah whispers to us that our Lord promises with great tenderness to take us back. Isaiah reminds us not to lose the hope of life in the despair of the tomb. The Lord will take us back despite our sins that He took on his back. He will take us back despite our denial of his presence in our life. He will take us back despite our betrayal of him. When the Lord takes us back, he is there to offer us the bread and wine and water and body and blood of eternal life. No matter what we do, the Lord has opened his arms to take us back.
Had we just awoken from this night earlier to walk with God, then we would not already be dwelling in enduring peace, being not afraid of the test. Baruch foretells the peace of the Cross, paradise shared with the “good thief,” and the peace-wish from the Lord when he enters the Upper Room through a locked door later in the Easter season.
As Jesus parted from his human body, bloodied, beaten and bruised, Ezekiel reminds us that the Paschal mystery does not start and end with the Lord. Instead we must remember that it starts with our sins and ends with us picking up the work of the Lord as his only hands left on earth. The Lord is our connection to the forgiving God, the Prodigal Father who ever awaits for our return. Thus through this action, “the nations shall know that I am the LORD, says the Lord GOD, when in their sight I prove my holiness through you.” The song from childhood comes to mind…”And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love. Yes they will know we are Christians by our love.”
Jesus did not do all this in a vacuum. Paul’s message in the Letter to the Romans and the Virginians speaks to this union. We are connected to this ministry from the beginning to the end. We were there with Mary when the angel of the Lord came to her. We were there in the crib when Jesus came into this world and opened our eyes to the epiphany of his presence. We were there with our friend Jesus as Simon carried the cross, as Veronica wiped his face, as the women of Jerusalem cried, and as Joseph and Nicodemus took his lifeless body down from the cross and buried it in a tomb.
“Are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life.” We are united in Christ through death because he accepted this death because of our sins, not his own. As we grow in union, we “must think of ourselves as being dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus.”
Jesus emerges from the tomb and changes everything in death as he changes everything in life! The angel of the Lord admonishes us to look among the living for evidence of the work that Jesus accomplishes. Every short course in Christianity ends when we leave the classroom, Misssionhurst, Mount Tabor or the tomb of our former lives and head back into the world of the living. Nothing is truly a closing, just the beginning. After the three days in the tomb, somebody rolls away the stone for us. Jesus emerges to begin his eternal Fourth Day among us and teach us how to live our Fourth Day among others. As we celebrate his Resurrection and return, bolstered by His sacrifice and the preparation of our Lenten journey, we stand, sit and kneel ready to continue ours with him.
Action
Are we ready to approach the tomb? Do we do it with trepidation like the women who were worried about who would roll away the stone in order for them to anoint the body as was the local Jewish custom? Or do we do it like Peter, running to find out for ourselves what the news holds for us?
Either way, today, more than any other day, we feel connected to all of salvation history and to its fulfillment in time to the needs of the Church. Like Peter, do we go home from Easter Vigil and mass every week amazed at what has occurred?
