Holy Saturday and Easter Saunday Reflection

 CELEBRATING EASTER

José Enrique Ruiz de Galarreta S.J.

“Pasch” is the Hebrew Word for “passage”. When the Israelites used to celebrate the Pasch they would commemorate the Passage through the Red Sea, when the Lord freed them from the slavery of Egypt.

We have inherited the name and something of the concept: we are celebrating the Pasch of Jesus: the passage of Jesus from death to life, from darkness to light. We are also celebrating our own “passage”: we have emerged from the darkness, we are in the light.

So Easter Sunday is the necessary crowning event of Holy Week. If we were to end with Good Friday, we would leave off without ending the adventure of Jesus and without proclaiming the definitive event of our faith: Jesus did not end his life on the cross and neither does our life end in darkness. The life and death of Jesus are the way to victory. Our life too. The life of Jesus, just as ours, passes through sin, through evil, through darkness, through death... but they only pass through, they move towards the light, fullness, triumph.

So we have the name of PASCH, the passage, and we celebrate this night, the fact that we passed from a life without meaning and hope,  dark and destined for death, to a life of sons, luminous and much more fully human.

Since many centuries, Christians celebrated this day (this night) as THE FEAST OF FEASTS, the central feast of the whole year; and , in it, the heart of the faith: THE NEW LIFE.

Our celebrations always have two directions: we celebrate something that happened and something that continues happening. We celebrate the resurrection of Jesus and we celebrate our resurrection: the definitive life of Jesus  and our new life, life of sons.

The followers of Jesus would celebrate all this with a VIGIL : by spending the night in a vigil, watching as if hoping for something to happen; right through the night they read stories and words of Jesus, prayed and sang hymns together; and at daybreak, with the light of dawn, they would celebrate the Eucharist in remembrance of the Risen Jesus.

We do something similar; even though we do not spend the whole night in prayer, we gather together at night and we join in a VIGIL, a night watch of readings and prayer ending with the Eucharist.

Our celebration has two basic parts:

The Paschal Vigil also has two parts:

·         The Liturgy of Light.

·         The Eucharist, which includes the liturgy of Water.

THE PASCHAL VIGIL

God is stronger than death.

A “VIGIL” is a night on watch, on vigil, waiting for the dawn on which Christ rises. The Church watches in prayer till the moment the sun rises. It is a symbol of life, night till the appearance of the light, Christ. Our vigil is the remains of the old one: a long night of prayer till at dawn the eucharist  of the Resurrection is celebrated.  In these brief notes we will pay attention to  two strongly linked aspects of our celebration: the symbols and the readings.

1.       THE SYMBOLS

The first symbol used is the vigil itself; to spend the night praying waiting for Christ, the light.

The second symbol is the light. The dawn, the spendor of the Risen Body (remember the Transfiguration) and the way John presents Jesus: “while I am in the world, I am the Light of the world.” The whole theology of John revolves around light and darkness. This is the night of Light, of the victory over death and over sin.

Light is presented in the paschal candle,  which  involves another symbolism very ancient, simple and profound. The candle is consumed to illumine others. It is wholly there to provide  light for others and is consumed in the process. It is a perfect symbol of Christ. Our little candles are all the same size, but receive their light from Him.  It is the only value the whole  candle has, and of the whole life of a Christian: to be consumed in order to give light to others. 

The celebration, therefore, begins in darkness. Suddenly at one end of the church shines a light and a voice cries: the light of Christ! To which we all respond: thanks be to God!. Then the candle moves towards the altar and as it advances we go on lighting our small candles till the whole church shines with the light of Christ.

The lights having been lit, the Easter proclamation is sung, a long song of praise in which a meaning is given to the night, that brings together many of the signs of the Old Testament, of Genesis, of the Exodus...understanding them as an announcement of the Resurrection.

In all these prayers are fused together aspects of the victory of Christ and our own victory over death and sin: not because they do not exist , but because they have no power. We now know what it means to die, we now know that sin is our cross and that God is with us to overcome it...

The third symbol is water. This symbol is taken up again when, after the liturgy of the Word, the baptismal liturgy is celebrated. It is kept on this night because it is the Resurrection of the First Born; behind him  we all go. And all those of us  who know him and accept him are the Church. That is why we celebrate our entrance into the Church through Baptism, our incorporation into the light, our participation in the New Life of Christ.

Water, a very rich symbol,  has many meanings. In the first place, water means cleanliness. We are cleansed from our sins. We celebrate forgiveness, for God is water always ready to cleanse. Secondly, water is fertility. We are celebrating Life. Jesus is life. We can say after we have known Jesus “this is life”, and eternal life, while the life of human beings without Jesus is drought and sterility. Thirdly, the symbol “coming out of the water” was used in the Church  to mean “escaping from death”  as the people of Israel in the Red Sea, even though this symbol has been falling into disuse.

But Baptism is not only a matter  of symbols. It is our acceptance, our pact with God. He comes to us and we go to Him. We form a communion with God, we join the Church, we form part of the Body of Christ. That is why it is a community celebration. The Church celebrated its birth, its incorporation to life, as the Body.  In Baptism we enter the community of believers; that is why we make a  solemn proclamation of our faith when we recite the Creed. In Baptism we make a  pact with Jesus and with the Church, the community of those who follow Jesus; that is why we will renew today the promises we made in Baptism, renouncing the world, its  values and criteria, to opt for the values and criteria of Jesus.

THE READINGS

The normal Sunday readings for the Eucharistic celebration are increased considerably. It was to fill the night with readings and prayers. Of all those, there remain seven readings (of which only three are read).

They are: reading of the Creation (Genesis, 1 and 2), the Sacrifice of Abraham (Genesis 22), the passage through the Red Sea (Exodus, 14-15), as remembrance of God’s work of liberation of his people. Then there are four readings from the prophets (two of Isaiah, one of Baruch and the other of Ezekiel), all of which present the same idea, God the Savior, in many symbols and different   ways of formulating it. Let us take only the second book of Isaiah as an example of the spirit of all of them.

The Readings, even though all seven may be read, are usually reduced to three. They are the following:

First reading: from the Book of Genesis: “God’s Dream”

(A religious interpretation of the origin of all beings with the use of the science of the times – so imperfect – to explain “the meaning of everything”, and above all, the meaning of the human being).

“God made man in his image, in his own image he created him, male and female he created them...”

THE FIRST MESSAGE: God is the source of life. All life comes from God. It is he who begins the adventure of human beings, so that they will live and increase and arrive at being fully human, as images, as children of God.

THE SECOND READING: FROM THE BOOK OF EXODUS: “WITH GOD, FREEDOM.”

(The Hebrews escaped from Egypt “by a miracle”. When they continued to celebrate the anniversary of that terrible night on which they were about to perish, they celebrated above all “The powerful hand of God , which got them out of slavery and brought them through the desert on the road to the fatherland.”

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of slavery in Egypt. You shall not have any other God.”

THE SECOND MESSAGE: Without God, slavery: slaves of the world, of sin, of death, of vulgarity... With God we can journey: we can conquer the sea, the night, enemy armies... With God, we can.

THE THIRD READING: From the Prophet Isaiah: “God, source of life.”

(A  hymn, exalted, brilliant, inspired. A man who lived two thousand four hundred years ago understood God very well. In his words we seem to hear Jesus himself):  (All you thirsty...)

And Jesus said:

“Whoever is thirsty, let him come to me and drink: there will be born within him a fountain of living water.)

THIRD MESSAGE: Like the rain, gratuitous, fertile, abundant, which makes the desert green, refreshes, cleans...That is who God is. Look at everyday life: it is a desert, not worth much, it is not fertile, it is boring...Put God in the midst...he is like a fountain in the desert!

It is a magnificent invitation to life, to abundance, to light, to fertility, founded on the Word of God which constantly waters, sows seed for our nourishment, which rises from us from our foundation in things of the earth  to those of the Spirit. In this reading are summarized the concepts of the others.  God, the creator of life, savior from the deluge of sin, liberator from slavery in Egypt, become light, water and seed of life: here all the symbols of the resurrection are brought together, the fullness of life offered by God.

After finishing the readings, the Eucharist continues. The Gloria, omitted during Lent, is sung. Then follow the readings proper to the Eucharist of the Sunday which are the following:

THE READINGS OF THE EUCHARIST

THE LETTER OF ST. PAUL TO THE ROMANS (6:3-11)

Themes and Contexts

The letter to the Romans

Paul here introduces a new language to express the same ideas: buried with Christ, dead to the world, what we were, sinners, we have crucified... we are already something new,  a new creature, risen. Baptism is the sacrament of all this. And the final phrase as a summary of all that we are celebrating:

      “So too you consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

We are shown that this is not only a celebration of something that happened, but of something that is happening, because this is our life, to journey through life, every day, in this way; to rise every day to the new life of Jesus.

Like many texts of Paul, it’s a theology that seems complicated to us, because he uses many symbols and he goes on changing their meaning from one paragraph to the next. But the basic message is clear. Sin is death: Jesus is Life, The Risen Jesus is supremely ALIVE,  free of death and of sin. We, through baptism,  unite ourselves to him, we wish to live a life free from sin, a new life. And this is true life, free of meaninglessness, stronger, and more definitive. It’s a text that sounds much like a hymn, of an enthusiastic profession of faith in Jesus.

THE GOSPEL OF MARK

Here we are shown in the first verses, the most historical part of the accounts of the resurrection: the confusion of the women faced with the empty sepulcher. Our text has omitted the final verses, which are very meaningful (verse 8):

“The women emerged fleeing from the sepulcher for a great fear had taken hold of them, and they said not a word to anyone.”

This was followed by the message of the resurrection given by a messenger: Do not look for Jesus in the sepulcher with the dead: he is alive; you will meet him in Galilee.

REFLECTION

The message of the Resurrection is the crowning of the Good News of the Kingdom. The announcement begins at Christmas with the same symbols: light in the midst of the night; Jesus, who will free the people from their sins. Today the message reaches its peak with the light emerging from  the night, Jesus stronger than death and sin through the power of the Spirit.

The resurrection of Jesus was not a triumphant spectacle that could be seen with the eyes. No one was a witness of the fact of the resurrection. The witnesses will be witnesses of Jesus, that he is alive and that he is Lord. Faith in Jesus is above all faith in the crucified one, in that neither death nor sin could prevail over him. The witnesses are witnesses , above all, because they are witnesses of the power of God, that God was with Him.

But the letter of St. Paul provides the most important dimension for us. We are not dealing at all with the resurrection of one of us, although it be the First, the one who is full of the Spirit. We are dealing with the resurrection of all. The power of the Spirit makes Jesus alive and Lord in spite of the cross and of death. The same power of the Spirit makes our life new, stronger than death and sin.

The Resurrection is the feast of Liberation:  we have been liberated from fear; we do not fear either death or sin. We do not fear death because we have seen in Jesus that it does not end our life. We do not fear sin , because we have seen that Jesus welcomes sinners and eats with them, and we have understood that we count with the power of God, for he is our doctor. And, added to all this, we do not fear God, because Jesus has destroyed the implacable judge and has revealed the Father, whose love we have known precisely in Jesus crucified. But we have been freed also of the world and its seductions: we have seen in Jesus a “resurrected” way of life that serves only the Kingdom, that is, the sons; we have seen in Jesus man freed by the Spirit: freed from greed, vanity, pride, vengefulness, and the need for pleasure...We feel like new creatures, the previous life, enslaved to the world and its seduction, seems to us of interest to those seeking death. And we know that our way of life is the path to full resurrection, fulfilled in our first born and which is being realized in us.

The Eucharist on this night more than ever, is prophetic: it is a meeting of risen ones who are not yet completely so, but who in anticipation celebrate still on the way , the final Banquet of all the resurrected ones in the house of the Father. In this Eucharist at late hours of the night we sense the echo of the words of Jesus in his farewell supper : “I will no more drink of the fruit of the vine until I drink it with you in the Kingdom of my Father.”

As a final consideration, more obvious and simple, but very meaningful: the first witnesses, those charged with taking the message to the disciples, are the women and among them, with special relevance, Mary Magdalene, “from whom Jesus had ejected seven demons.” And the message is meant for the disciples, with Peter specially mentioned, the cowardly boaster who denied Jesus. The risen Jesus is the same: the one who saves from sin, the one who is faithful to his friends, and takes into account their failings, the one who values above all the love of those who follow him.

The Gospel according to Matthew (28, 1-10)

Water/ Baptism

Easter night was the time when the catechumens were incorporated into the Church, received baptism and were admitted into the community. It was done at this time after the readings, because until this day they could be present at the

readings, but would leave the gathering when the Act of Thanksgiving (the Eucharistic celebration) began. Now they cross that threshold and are admitted to the Supper of the Lord, the most intimate act of the celebration of Christians. This entrance door is Baptism.

This night, before beginning the Eucharist, we renew the memoy of our Baptism. We do it with the symbol of water.

OUR BAPTISM

One day, without our realizing it , they put us in the Church, they made us companions of the followers of Jesus. It’s the best thing that happened to us in life. In the church we have known Jesus, in the church we have received the gospels, and we have learnt to pray the way Jesus taught us.

This needs to be celebrated!

We do it now, when we are celebrating the Risen Jesus. We are also celebrating our birth to a different, new, better life of being in the Church, of following Jesus.

WATER

The sea was for the Israelites a danger of death: all of them were on the point of dying. God saved them from the Sea.

Thirst was for Israel a danger of death in the desert. God helped them find water in order to live.

Drought brings about death. Rain is life. Is there anything better than a bath when you return tired and dirty? You come out new

THESE ARE THE FOUR SYMBOLS OF WATER WE FIND IN BAPTISM:

EMERGING FROM DEATH

QUENCHING THIRST

HAVING A PRODUCTIVE LIFE

REMAINING CLEAN

When they baptized us they put us in contact with Jesus, who is for our lives the best water. They launched us on the venture of giving meaning and fruitfulness to our lives by “drinking from Jesus”.

On this night of Water, they will invite us to “RENEW THE PROMISES OF BAPTISM”, that is, to connect with Jesus again, the choose him again, so that our lives are lives, so that they may be clean and productive.

At that time we will  profess our faith: it is the best time of the year to say together, aloud, with joy:

     I BELIEVE IN GOD, THE FATHER  ALMIGHTY,

   

     I BELIEVE IN JESUS CHRIST, OUR LORD,

     I BELIEVE IN THE SPIRIT,

     I BELIEVE IN LIFE.

FOR OUR PRAYER

All this is a CELEBRATION, a feast.  “We celebrate” , “have a feast”, about an important event with joy. So much the better is the celebration   the more important is for us what we celebrate. Hence, what we bring to the celebration, our  faith, is what makes it important, and what renews and regenerates our faith as we celebrate it in the Church.

The symbols, the candles, the water, the night, the readings, the stories, will be carriers of grace in the measure in which we fill them with content. If we have deep within us the joy of being in a resurrected life, faith in the Liberating Spirit, trust in Jesus... our Easter Vigil will be a feast, it will fill with joy and strength our own spirit, we will feel truly risen with Him.

COMMUNION WITH THE  RISEN ONE

Today’s Eucharist – more than ever today’s Eucharist – is a feast.

We sing, we celebrate, we thank, because there is light, because there is water, because there is life. If all our Eucharistic celebrations are Acts of Thanksgiving, the one of today must be intensely so.

And we receive Communion: on Good Friday we had communion with Jesus, showing that we accepted him, were united to him and to all those crucified in the world. Today we receive Jesus in communion manifesting above all , our hope. We commune with the Risen One, feel him as “the first to rise again.” We agree to live the lives of risen ones: I want all Jesus offers, I accept life the way he proposes it, I accept the mission he offers, I will once again be fired up by him, nourished by him, will drink of his spirit, and in this way I can journey with him.

With his light, his water, his bread, I can say, from the heart:

THIS INDEED IS LIFE!