OUT OF DARKNESS …
Today, the Church is empty. The altar is stripped bare. The tabernacle is open & stands alone, empty of the Lord’s Eucharistic presence. Do you find the stark emptiness of this day touching your heart in a most poignant way? Can we feel in a visceral way the sense of hopelessness of human life without Jesus, as we experience the absence of the Lord Jesus who died and remained buried in the tomb?
But Death does not have the final word. The final word is Resurrection – Christ rose from the dead! As St Paul declares in 1 Corinthians 15:55 to 57, “’Death has been swallowed up in victory.’ ‘Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?’ Now the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
And so, we keep vigil with Jesus until after nightfall, when the Church celebrates the victory of Christ over death in His Resurrection – the Liturgy of the Easter Vigil in the Holy Night. The priest blesses the fire & the Easter Candle & carries it in Procession into a dark & unlit Church, singing 3 times: “The Light of Christ”, while we, the faithful reply: “Thanks be to God”.
He then proceeds to sing the Easter Exsultet, joining the exultation of the hosts of heaven & the Angel ministers of God, letting ‘the trumpet of salvation sound aloud our mighty King’s triumph.’ (cf Easter Exsultet) He continues to sing of the great love & mercy of God for His people: ‘O wonder of your humble care for us! O love, O charity beyond all telling, to ransom a slave you gave away your Son!’ (cf Easter Exsultet) And he solemnly declares in song the victorious effects of Jesus’ Resurrection on us all: ‘The sanctifying power of this night dispels darkness, washes faults away, restores innocence to the fallen, and joy to mourners, drives out hatred, fosters concord, and brings down the mighty.’ (cf Easter Exsultet)
Gathered in Vigil, we then listen to the Liturgy of the Word that tells the wondrous love of God and His plan for our salvation & redemption in Jesus. We then welcome our new members to the Church in the Rite of Baptism. And finally, we celebrate in the Liturgy of the Eucharist the memorial of the Death & Resurrection of Jesus until he comes again in glory.
This Holy Saturday, how does the emptiness & silence of this time of vigil strike you? Do you sometimes experience the absence of the Lord from your life? Do you feel a deep sense of gratitude that God has called you out of the darkness of sin into His own wonderful light (cf 1 Peter 2:9) through the grace of Baptism?
Here’s a moving & beautiful hymn “Out of Darkness” as you prepare for our glorious Easter.
https://youtu.be/244JfjP9Lb0?si=dZWpDXtA-1bdQGg4
Article by Damian Boon, HFC Blog Team Lead