Coronavirus Talk IV
Pray the Our Father together
Last night I said that the Easter Vigil is the most beautiful ceremony the Church celebrates. It is also the longest ceremony. In many parts of the world the Vigil can last for three to four hours or more. In the US, we try to keep it to two to three hours. Tonight, we are going to handle it in 20 minutes!
Because the Vigil is so long, and because it’s on a Saturday, a lot of people skip it because they are planning to attend the Mass on Easter Sunday. I think that’s too bad because, since everyone in the world is desperate for good news in these days, there is no better news than the news that the Vigil celebrates: “that we will have the sure hope of sharing Christ’s triumph over death and of living with him in God.” Nothing can beat that.
The Vigil is divided into four sections: the light, the word, the water, and the Eucharist.
The evening begins with congregation gathering outside the church at twilight for the lighting of the Easter candle that is the symbol of Christ risen from the dead. Christ is the light that shines in the darkness of the world, the light that attracts and warms and guides every human being. The priest inscribes the candle with a stylus, writing “Christ, yesterday and today, the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega. All times belong to Him. And all ages. To Him be glory and praise through every age forever.” Then the candle is brought in procession into the darkened church as the Congregation slowly follows, singing three times: “Christ, Our Light! Thanks be to God.” As the procession proceeds down the aisle, everyone receives their own candle, lit from the Easter candle, symbolizing that everyone receives the light that comes from Jesus.
When everyone is in place, someone from the church community who has a good singing voice (this was, of course, my role several times) sings the Exsultet, a special Easter proclamation, that connects “this night” to every other act of God’s fidelity in the history of God with His people, Some of the most moving phrases are these: “This is the night when once you led our forebears, Israel’s children, from slavery in Egypt and made them pass dry-shod through the Red Sea. This is the night that with a pillar of fire banished the darkness of sin. This is the night that even now, throughout the world, sets Christian believers apart from worldly vices and from the gloom of sin, leading them to grace and joining them with his holy ones. This is the night when Christ broke the prison-bars of death and rose victorious from the grave.” All this beautiful hymn reminds us of our faith that God’s mercy toward us everlasting.
In the next section, we are asked to “listen with quiet hearts to the word of God. Let us meditate on how God in times past saved his people and in these last days, has sent his Son as our redeemer.” This part consists of nine readings, 7 from the Old Testament and 2 from the New Testament, which emphasize God’s saving love and His mercy. Thank God, there is some latitude in choosing the number readings to use, but one of them must be read: this one about Moses leading the Chosen People across the Red Sea.
The Lord said to Moses: “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to go forward. And you, lift up your staff and, with hand outstretched over the sea, split the sea in two, that the Israelites may pass through it on dry land. But I will make the Egyptians so obstinate that they will go in after them. Then I will receive glory through Pharaoh and all his army, his chariots and charioteers. The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.
The angel of God, who had been leading Israel’s camp, now moved and went around behind them. The column of cloud also, leaving the front, took up its place behind them, so that it came between them and the camp of the Egyptians and that of Israel. But the cloud now became dark, and thus the night passed without the rival camps coming any closer together all night long. Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord swept the sea with a strong east wind throughout the night and turned it into dry land. When the water was thus divided, the Israelites marched into the midst of the sea on dry land, with the water like a wall to their right and to their left.
The Egyptians followed in pursuit; all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and charioteers went after them right into the midst of the sea. In the night watch just before dawn the Lord cast through the column of the fiery cloud upon the Egyptian force a glance that threw it into a panic; and he so clogged their chariot wheels that they could hardly drive. With that the Egyptians sounded the retreat before Israel because the Lord was fighting for them against the Egyptians.
Then the Lord said to Moses: “Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the water may flow back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots and their charioteers.” So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at dawn the sea flowed back to its normal depth. The Egyptians were fleeing head on toward the sea when the Lord hurled them headlong into its midst. As the water flowed back, it covered the chariots and charioteers Of Pharaoh’s whole army which had followed the Israelites into the sea. Not a single one of them escaped. But the Israelites had marched on dry land through the midst of the sea, with the water like a wall to their right and to their left. Thus the Lord saved Israel on that day from the power of the Egyptians. When Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the seashore and beheld the great power that the Lord had shown against the Egyptians, they feared the Lord and believed in him and in his servant Moses.
Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord: “I will sing to the Lord for He is gloriously triumphant; horse and chariot he has cast into the sea.” – Exodus 14:15-15:1
Again, that is the passage that may not be omitted. It is read at every Easter vigil in every church throughout the world.
I think I know why.
This passage dramatically illustrates something we say often in the African American Catholic community to explain and underscore something we believe is clearly and intervention by God, we say: “God always makes a way out of no way.” With the Red Sea ahead of them and with the Pharaoh and his chariots and his charioteers breathing down their necks, there seemed absolutely no way the Jews were going to escape certain death; they had designed no exit strategy and no human ingenuity or idea could save them. They were sitting ducks. And then, God made a way out of no way.
It strikes me that this passage is one you and I need to cling to during these dark days of Covid-19. We have no idea right now what is going to happen, but God will make a way out of no way. Our whole faith depends upon our trust in the God who is always with us, who never abandons us, but who saves us in His way, not in ours, and in His time, not in ours. Perhaps God does this so we humans cannot take credit for it. Nevertheless, His way is always something we cannot invent or even imagine. When it happens, we can only express amazement, awe, and, after its implications have sunk in, gratitude. After all, who of us would ever think of someone being raised from the dead, not to mention doing a resurrection ourselves?
God always makes a way out of no way.
The next section of the Vigil is the blessing of the new baptismal waters and the conferral of the sacraments of baptism and confirmation on those adults who have been preparing for these sacraments of initiation for the past two years. Then, the entire congregation, revived in the light of Christ, the word of God, and the rebirth of new members, then renews the promises of baptism: renouncing sin, renouncing evil and renouncing Satan, the author and prince of sin. We affirm once again that we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting.
The Easter Vigil concludes with the celebration of the Eucharist, the dinner table for the community of faith, a community so diverse in every way, but all in need of the Body and blood of Christ: which, again, quoting Pope Francis, is not “a prize for the perfect but powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak.”
The congregation is sent out to the words with the words: “The Mass is ended, go in peace. Alleluia, Alleluia.” To which the people respond: “Thanks be to God. Alleluia, Alleluia!”
The Holy Week began with Hosanna which I told you does not mean “Hooray” but means “Save us.” And the week ends with Alleluia which means: “God be praised.”
Because Jesus is risen from the dead, we have hope that our life continues forever and that we will not be defeated by the ravages of suffering and death.
Because of the resurrection, we have hope that we can live patiently with our human weakness and feelings of personal inadequacy.
Because Jesus is risen, we have hope that we can eventually be reconciled in those messy and unresolved relationships we all have.
Because Jesus is risen, we have hope that will be healed of the wounds we have experienced from our past.
The resurrection of Jesus is important because it gives us hope. It calls us into an incontrovertible confidence in God’s love and providence.
As the Easter proclamation puts it: This is the night when Jesus Christ broke the chains of death and rose triumphant from the grave. Father, how wonderful your care for us! How boundless your merciful love!
May that boundless love continue to inspire us to live lives full of faith, hope, and love, living in the light of the risen Christ.
We will meet again tomorrow and reflect on the meaning of Easter. Easter is important enough to warrant two sessions, so we will look at it tomorrow and also on Sunday.
Let’s say a Hail Mary together and then I will give you a blessing.