Nature surrounds us with a rhythm of dying and new life. The tides flow in, the tides flow out. The trees, crops and flowers seem to die and then reappear in all their glory. As older generations fall away, new ones are born to take their place. But there is something in our human make up that resist tuning ourselves to the same rhythms. Our sense of immortality encourages us to think that we can dance to a different drum.
The readings at the Easter Vigil take us back through our scriptural memory bank. The historical readings from the Old Testament remind us of God’s fidelity to his plan of salvation. Despite our human failings, God has never abandoned us. The prophetic readings remind us of God’s care for us. We shall be God’s people; and God will always be our God.
The readings from the New Testament show us how this is achieved. By dying and rising with Christ through baptism we enter into the mystery of his triumph over death. We join in the amazement of the Gospel that the tomb is empty and Jesus has fulfilled his promise to rise on the third day.
Once again, Jesus takes us by the hand. In his awareness of our fears and anxieties he goes ahead of us into the darkness. Our Easter Vigil itself takes place in the darkness, though right at the beginning we have lit the new light of the risen Christ to guide us.
The Exsultet proclaims that this is the night whose power “dispels all evil, washes guilt away, restores lost innocence, brings mourners joy; it cast out hatred, brings us peace, and humbles earthly pride.”
For Christ, the Morning Star, has come back from the dead and shed his peaceful light on all humankind. Liked to this event through our baptism, we rejoin the rhythms of life with a flesh sense of hope. Each ending is a new beginning. We can let go of our fears, our false expectations, our clinging to human possessions and even life. We can enter into the creative force of the risen Lord, who makes all things new.
Fr. Alex Osei
SSC-USA Spiritual Director