EASTER VIGIL Texts: Old Testament: New Testament: Gen. 22:1-2:2 Rom. 6:3-11 Gen. 22:1-18 Mt. 28:1-10 Ex. 14:15-15:1 Is. 54:5-14 Is. 55:1-11 Bar. 3:9-15, 32-4:4 Ez. 36:16-17a, 18-28 REFLECTION My dear brothers and sisters welcome to our Easter Vigil. This night is the significant part in the liturgical year when the church focuses its attention to its belief and teaching on the resurrection of Christ. Like the early believers, we make a vigil for the celebration of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. The liturgy is divided into four parts. The first part is the Liturgy of Light. We gather in the darkness of the night and contemplate the source of our light, which is Jesus Christ himself. The Paschal Candle symbolizes Jesus as the Light of the world. The second part is the Liturgy of the Word. Like the community of believers, we are also reflecting the wonderful acts of God in the history of our salvation. The third part is the Liturgy of Baptism. In this part, new members of the community are to be baptized and accepted as members of the Christian community. We shall also renew our baptismal commitment that we had professed during our Christian Baptism. The last part is the Liturgy of the Eucharist. This is the culminating aspect of our Easter Vigil. We welcome Jesus as the Risen Lord and we proclaim our faith of the resurrection in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. Let us now reflect the messages of our Easter Vigil celebration. A. The Liturgy of Light: In this liturgy, a fire will be blessed and the Paschal Candle will be lighted. The light of the Paschal Candle is the only light that shines in the darkness of the night. It lights the faithful who are participating in the liturgy. The Paschal Candle is brought to the altar, and the “Exultet,” the Easter proclamation will be sung. The Paschal Candle is a symbol of Christ being the Light of the world. In the midst of the darkness of sins in the world, Christ manifests himself as the only Light who guides our way to the Father. As we share in the Paschal life of Christ, we also become the light of the world. Are you ready to shine and to share your light to others? B. The Liturgy of the Word: A. Old Testament Readings: 1. Gen. 1:1-2:2 is about the story of creation. This reflects our Christian life as the image and the likeness of God. 2. Gen. 22:1-18 is about the mission of Abraham to offer his son. This reflects the life of Jesus who offered his life for us. 3. Ex. 14:15-15:1 is a story of the deliverance of Israel from the bondage of Egypt. This reflects our deliverance from the bondage of sin and death through the saving act of Jesus’ death and resurrection. 4. Isa. 54:5-14 is the giving of a new covenant to Israel. God is the God of Israel and Israel will be God’s people. This reflects the new covenant of Jesus that was given to us. We become children of God. 5. Isa. 55:1-11 is the revelation of the merciful love of God for Israel. This reflects the loving providence of God and his saving mercy that becomes flesh in Jesus. 6. Bar. 3:9-15, 32-4:4 is about the wisdom of God that gives life to His people. This reflects the life of Jesus as a concrete manifestation of the wisdom of God in us. 7. Ez. 36:16-17a, 18-28 is the giving of a new heart and a new spirit to the people of God. This reflects the life of Jesus that brings new life and makes us new creation in Christ. B. New Testament Readings: In the first reading, Paul stressed that through Baptism, the believers have shared in the passion, the death and the resurrection of Christ. Thus he said, “Do you know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore, we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so too might walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:3-4). Our Christian Baptism is our participation of the mystery of the death and the resurrection of Christ. Our human bodies were already sealed with the saving grace of Christ’s death, and therefore, they will also share in the life-giving power of Christ’s resurrection. When we die, we die for Christ, and when we rise, we rise for Christ. Our Easter call is to die with others from the glamour of sins and to rise with them to a new life in Christ. This is an Easter challenge for all of us today. In the gospel, we heard the account of Matthew concerning the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. There are two scenes here. The first one is the event in the tomb. The second one is the appearance of the Risen Jesus to the women. In the first scene, we heard about the women who came to the tomb. While they were in the tomb, suddenly a great earthquake occurred, the stone rolled back and the angel appeared to the women. The women were afraid. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has been raised as he said” (Mt. 28:5-6). The women left the tomb both frightened and elated. In the second scene, the Risen Jesus appeared to the women and greeted them. Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me” (Mt. 28:10). The different stories about the resurrection of Jesus are part of the traditions that had influenced the evangelist Matthew in his account of the resurrection of Christ. The occurrence of the earthquake and the appearance of the angel in the tomb are signs of the conquest of Jesus over the power of sin and death. The presence of the guards in the tomb is connected to the burial of Jesus. Matthew stressed that since Jesus was no longer in the tomb. That means he has already risen. The women were the first ones to discover the empty tomb, had received the good news of the resurrection and were commissioned to announce the resurrection of Jesus. The experience of the women in the tomb, the appearance of the angel and the commissioning of the Risen Lord to the disciples are stories of the good news of the resurrection. This good news must not be kept. This must be proclaimed to all people. This Easter challenge was understood clearly by the women. Being empowered by the faith of the resurrection, the women had proclaimed boldly the good news to the disciples. Today, we are blessed to experience the Risen Christ in our lives. The witnesses of Christ in the New Testament faith experience have their own personal and communal stories to tell. Today, being Christians, we also have our own faith stories to tell to the world. These stories could be our personal conversion or our communal transformation in Christ. If we really experienced the Risen Christ, then his presence should have brought a radical conversion in our lives or in the community. If this is true, then we become the “good news” of the kingdom today. The reality of the resurrection of Jesus affirms the good news of the kingdom that Jesus proclaimed to the world before He died. It likewise inaugurates the birth of a missionary church in the world today. This missionary church is not a static church that upholds the status quo and welcomes only those familiar faces. This is rather a dynamic church that goes out to the whole world and proclaims the good news of Christ and the coming of the kingdom on earth. We believed that Christianity is still the leaven for the transformation of the world today especially when we live a remarkable lifestyle being Christians in this world. Today, we are called to rise from sin and death and to live a new life of grace in Christ Jesus. This is the Easter challenge for all of us. C. The Liturgy of Baptism: After the Liturgy of the Word, the Liturgy of Baptism follows. The focus in this liturgy is the acceptance of the new members of the church through the reception of the Sacrament of Baptism. It is also the time for the baptismal renewal of all baptized Christians. During the early church, the season of Lent was a time for the preparation of the Christian candidates for the reception of the Sacrament of Baptism. It was also a time for penitence of all sinners. When the time of Easter arrived, the candidates were baptized and incorporated into the community of believers. The sinners were also welcomed back to the church. Baptism is a sacrament that makes us members of the body of Christ, which is the church. Our Baptism incorporates us into the Christian community. When we were baptized, we actually professed our faith in God and renounced the evil of sin. Thus in this celebration, we shall renew again the promises that we made in Baptism. We renounce sins and the glamour of evil. We reject the devil and all his empty promises. We profess our faith in God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. This is the faith of the church. Since Christian faith is rooted in the faith of the resurrection of Jesus, then it is fitting to profess it again during this time of Easter. Are you resolved to reject sin and the enticements of the devil? Are you ready to renew the commitment that you made during your baptism? Are you ready to profess your faith in Christ Jesus? Are you willing to live your freedom as children of God? If so, God bless your resolved. D. The Liturgy of the Eucharist: To become a witness of the resurrection of Christ in the world today is really a great responsibility to do being a Christian believer and a religious priest. I asked myself many times about this, and I really have a difficult time to really integrate my human experiences, my priestly ministries, the events of my religious life, my life with the church, my prophetic communion with the poor and the sufferings, the social effects of the signs of the times and the movements of the world today. The call towards integral human development and the fullness of life in God is still on-going in me. The Feast of the Resurrection of Jesus as I commemorate today has really inspired me to make the mystery of faith as a connecting link of all my personal and social experiences so that I may arrive at becoming totally integrated human being and a genuine ordained minister of God today. Pope Benedict XVI on the “Year of faith” said, “The door of faith is always open for us, ushering us into the life of communion with God,” (Door of Faith1). I see the Sacrament of the Eucharist as a connecting link in my life of communion with God and with the church. The church declares that “the Eucharist is the source and the summit of the Christian life, for in the Blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the church, namely Christ himself” (CCC, 1324). I can only see myself being integrated in the fullness of Christ when I understand my life, my mission and my experiences in the context of my faith in the Eucharist as well as in the grace of my Christian Baptism. The Easter Vigil of the Lord’s Resurrection will only be fully integrated in me when I “celebrate the Eucharist worthily, adore it profoundly and proclaim it prophetically” all the days of my life. Thus I am resolved today to really be possessed by the word of God and by the Eucharist so that I may be able to witness worthily to the truth of faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ being an integral part for total human development and the fullness of Christian life in the world today. The Eucharist is the highest part of our Easter Vigil. It is in this part that we enter into the fullness of our Easter celebration. Our Easter Vigil celebration is like a journey. We begin with an experience of darkness, the blessing of fire and the lighting of the Paschal Candle. This liturgy reflects our experience from the darkness of life to our being the light of the world. The journey continues by meditating the wonders that God has done in history through the readings of the word of God. We go on in our vigil by celebrating the Sacrament of Baptism for the new members of the community and by renewing our baptismal promises. The journey ends with the celebration of the liturgy of the Holy Eucharist. The faith of the resurrection of Christ is the foundation of our Christian faith. This is the message of our Easter celebration. We believed that Christ has died and rose again. Our faith of this mystery makes us believers and witnesses of Christ before the world. Easter means life. It is about community transformation, renewal and conversion. It is about Christian witnessing. It is about a proclamation of Jesus Christ as the Lord of humanity and the Savior of the world. In other words, the Eucharist is a synthesis of the word of God, the summary of our Easter faith and the reality of our salvation in Jesus Christ. Thus to celebrate the Eucharist is to proclaim the mystery of the death and the resurrection of Christ that has brought salvation to the world. To receive Jesus in the Eucharist is to accept with joy the gift of salvation of God for us. To eat the body of Christ in the Eucharist is to become the living witnesses of the resurrection of Christ. To drink the blood of Christ in the Eucharist is to become proclaimers of our Christian faith. Therefore in this Eucharist, we pray that the Father in heaven may make prophets of his offer of redemption for the whole world. Let the grace of the Eucharist empower to make the power of our faith on the resurrection of Christ as integral part of our human development and the transformation of the world today. Yes, we pray that our Eucharistic celebration this moment may become a celebration of joy and thanksgiving for the magnanimous gift of salvation that we received from God in Jesus Christ. Happy Easter to all! God bless us all during this Easter Day.
Posted on: Sat, 19 Apr 2014 00:54:39 +0000
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