Sacred Triduum Easter Vigil 2008
As we keep vigil for the Resurrection of the Lord this night, God in his goodness and love bestows on his people Light, Liberation, and Life. We know that all throughout salvation history, God has been slowly preparing his people to become partakers of his divine nature. This history finds its high point tonight when the Church teaches us that the Father sent the Son to undo by his cross and resurrection what we had brought about through our sins. The resurrection marks the beginning of a whole new world.
As we heard in the story of creation, God first created light, but through sin, we have chosen darkness. We also know that God created us with a free will to choose the good and avoid evil, but we chose to ignore the good and become slaves to our passions. Lastly, while God breathed into our nostrils the breath of life, we chose sin, which ultimately leads to death.
All the readings and actions we do tonight clearly focus on not only the human race regaining what it lost, but raising us to the dignity of being children of God. First we look to the light. We began this evening in darkness before a large fire, and from that fire there was taken a flame to light this Easter candle. We recognize that Jesus Christ is our Light, the light that shows us the truth about God’s love, the light that warms us from its flame, the light which purifies in us whatever is not of God. Tonight those who will be baptized will receive the Light of Christ, so that they can make their way through the world confident that God will always be their guide, keep them warm in his love and cleanse them from all impurity.
This night is also about liberation. We heard the story from Exodus of Moses leading the Hebrew people from slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land, with God fighting for them all the way. In a little while, before our Elect will be baptized, they will renounce Satan, announcing their intention to be free from sin and profess their faith in God. All of us then will renew our baptismal promises, in which we renounce again evil and profess our faith in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. God did not create us to be slaves, but a free people, configured to Jesus Christ through Baptism that we may inherit everlasting life. Tonight we call to mind again that our most important attachment must be to Jesus Christ, and not to the things of this world.
Lastly, tonight is about Life. Real life. It is not about the one we might imagine or think we deserve, but true life, a life in which we are totally immersed in the love of God It is a life that will have the cross, but it will also having lasting meaning and joy. We see through the bodily resurrection of Jesus that Life is Christ, and in order to possess that life, we must die to ourselves and allow the Holy Spirit to dwell in us and seal in us the love of God in an everlasting way. Those who are to be baptized and received into the Church tonight receive the special gifts of the Holy Spirit through the Sacrament of Confirmation, and having been fully initiated are brought to receive Life himself, Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist.
The great hymn to the Easter Candle, the Exultet, says it so well: Rejoice O earth in shining splendor, radiant in the brightness of your King! Christ has conquered! Glory fills you! Darkness vanishes forever! Alleluia!
