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1. Even in the shadow and the sadness of Good
Friday we were able to glimpse the beginning of a light
shining through the darkness of that day. The courage,
composure and the steadfastness of Christ throughout his
ordeal brought home to us that there was a power and a
spirit in him which could not be crushed or conquered, a
power which could prevail over violence and evil and
suffering, so much so that we could speak of the
'triumph' of the cross.
But now that glimmer of light has become a
blaze of light and glory and we realize that the power
of Christ is not only a power over sin and suffering but
also a power which can prevail over death. He is risen
from the dead! This is the great shout of joy of the
Christian community since the first Easter soon after it
was discovered that the tomb in which he was laid to
rest was empty. Like the early Christians we too
rejoice and are glad - for the Lord is truly risen and
is with us. He is among us.
And the rejoicing is not only because Christ
himself has risen from the dead but also because we
share in his new and imperishable life - "by dying he
destroyed our death; by rising he restore our life." -
we will proclaim later on in the Preface. He has risen
from the dead - "so that we too might walk in newness of
life" - Saint Paul reminded us in the reading before the
Gospel.
2. Everything in our Easter celebration speaks
to us of light, freedom, and newness of life. The
readings, the hymns, the symbols all take our minds and
our hearts away from anything which might darken our
lives; they fix our attention on a world where the hope
that all will be well is firm and take us beyond the
limitations of our human existence, beyond the sadness
and the darkness which sometimes threatens to overwhelm
us. They take us into a world where - "darkness
vanishes forever" - (Exultet), a world where we are -
"washed clean of sin and freed from all defilement"
(ibid) "The power of this holy night dispels all evil,
washes guilt away, restores lost innocence, brings
mourners joy." And for that we prayed as we lit our
Easter candles - "May the light of Christ, rising in
glory dispel the darkness of our hearts and minds."
3. In our hymn to the Paschal Candle (which is
the symbol of the risen Christ) we cried out - "Night
truly blessed when heaven is wedded to earth and man is
reconciled with God!" In the person of Christ, risen
from the dead, the bond between heaven and earth is
welded forever, never again to be broken. We do not
have to go seeking a heaven somewhere out there beyond
our earth and beyond our earthly experience. Everything
here on this earth of ours (everything except sin) is
now redeemed by the presence of the risen Lord. There
is nothing on this earth which we can despise for all is
holy to Christ and a fitting place for his presence.
To see ourselves, and our world, as
something precious in the eyes of the Lord, surely this
is a great gift and a grace for which we should be
forever grateful. No wonder we can sing and shout for
joy on this holy night which opens our minds and our
hearts to see the healing presence of God everywhere.
Wherever we go, whatever we do, whomever we meet - all
can now be a source of joy and wonder to us, for in all
we can see the hand of God. There is a very beautiful
prayer in which we ask God to - "open our eyes to the
work of your hand in the splendour of creation, in the
beauty of human life. Touched by your hand, our world
is holy. Help us to cherish the gifts which surround
us, to share your blessings with our brothers and
sisters, and to experience the joy of life in your
presence." And indeed the world is now resplendent with
the light of the risen Christ.
That is the freedom and the light which we
celebrate tonight - that we would always enjoy life to
the full, that we would always have the wisdom to
appreciate and rejoice in this great and bounteous earth
of ours, for that too is a gift of God. And having been
blessed by this awareness we should share this blessing
with all whom we meet so that their lives too might be
full and complete.
4. No, we do not flee from this world nor is
there any reason for us to want to escape from it. For
all its tragedies, shortcomings and imperfections,
sinfulness and evil, it is still the place where the
Lord wishes to meet us and be with us, the place where
he wishes us to rejoice in his presence as we do on this
night. It is the place where Jesus has risen from the
dead to live for ever.
Christians have always been realists with
their eyes wide open to the possibility and indeed the
reality of evil in the world and in their own lives, but
that does not make the world any less the gift of God or
our own lives any less the place where he wishes to
dwell. The world of our own times is not lacking in
evil. We are all aware of the havoc and the suffering
caused by evil and unscrupulous people, and indeed by
our own waywardness.
We
could remind ourselves of many other atrocities, not to
point the finger of blame away from ourselves - we are
all responsible, to some extent, for the evil which
stalks our world - but to be quite aware that for all
the sophistication of our twentieth century there is
much to shock and shame us. But we are not here tonight
to ponder on the darker side of our human existence but
rather to rejoice that in the midst of it all there is
now present a light for our paths, a light which the
darkness can never again overcome. We remember that the
terrible happenings of Good Friday have given way to the
brightness of the Resurrection. Tonight a light is
kindled which can never be extinguished. And we pray
that our own lives may be enkindled by that light, set
aflame so that we may go forth from here with the "light
of hope in our eyes, the fire of inspiration on our
lips, the word of life on our tongues and the love of
Christ in our hearts."
"Father in heaven, the light of Christ has scattered the
darkness of hatred and sin. Called to that light we ask
for your guidance. Form our lives in your truth, our
hearts in your love. We ask this ....."
QUOTATIONS:
1.
“In
our celebrating the Paschal mystery maybe we skip too
quickly from Good Friday to the Easter Vigil. It is Holy
Saturday, silent and empty, that holds the vital key
which includes us, human beings, at the heart of Easter.
It is the timeless moment when we, at our lowest, are
sought and found by Jesus. Having descended to the very
womb of the earth, he gave the earth his divine life
forever. This is the new creation of a transfigured
earth into which, not out of which, Christ died and was
raised. At its inner core, the world is not transformed.
It is a world in which everything belongs. ……
The
dualistic virus that has infected the ecclesiastical
system over the centuries has great difficulty in
believing the truth of seeing the presence of the risen
Christ in the most ordinary and “secular” places. It has
great trouble, in fact, in believing what the
Incarnation reveals about the divine value of all
Creation and all lived lives. There is a chilling edge
to ecclesiastical references to “our Godless” lives,
society or world – the very place that God, named or
not, is utterly delighted to inhabit. Christ is risen
because in death he redeemed for ever the deepest parts
of all human hearts, the innermost centre of all earthly
existence, where he is pleased to live.”
(Daniel O’Leary, Human touch of Easter, - article
in The Tablet, 24 March 2007, p. 9) |
