The Vigil. The incredible news: "HE IS RISEN!"

The Triduum - Three Days - Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday - are a somber time, a time of darkness. On Holy Thursday, the liturgy starts with a joyous sort of atmosphere. The Gloria is sung for the first time since Ash Wednesday. But the mood darkens. The end of the liturgy is the celebrant removing the Host from the altar - the altar is stripped. Jesus' crucifixion rapidly approaches. He is about to be betrayed and undergo an unfair, illegal trial, and be handed over to Pilate. At the conclusion of the liturgy on Holy Thursday, we leave in silence.

On Good Friday we have a liturgy, but no Mass is said, anywhere in the world, on Good Friday. The Hosts we use on Good Friday would have been consecrated on Holy Thursday. The liturgy is very solemn. Jesus has died. As we put ourselves in the place of the early disciples - was there ever a darker day? He's gone. Gone. Our hopes - dashed. He is wrapped up and placed in a tomb.

Then there was a gray, gray Saturday, a day that neither heard his voice nor saw his face. And then sunset and the darkness and the end of Shabbat.

And then. . .and then. . .

We enter a dark church. Darkness, despair. . .

And then a fire is lit - a fire that symbolizes life. Some grains of incense are placed in the wax of the candle, and the words are spoken:

Christ yesterday and today;

The beginning and the end,

The Alpha and the Omega,

His are the times and ages.

To Him be glory and dominion

Through all ages of eternity. Amen.

The candle is lit from the fire and is raised. As the candle is raised in the still-dark church, we hear the proclamation:

Lumen Christi! Light of Christ!

The reply from all:

Deo gratias! Thanks be to God!

 

And with the Paschal candle, and the proclamation in the darkness, the words from the Prologue to the Fourth Gospel never fail to come to my mind:

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

To me, this is the most powerful moment in the entire liturgical year. I don't have words to say how powerfully that one moment impacts me. I am surprised when I find out how many Catholics - Catholics, mind you - have never attended an Easter Vigil Mass. I would go so far as to suggest that even non-Catholic Christians should attend one of these in your lifetime. The symbols and their impacts don't stop with the candle. Everything we do litutgically comes about in this one Mass. It is rich in symbol - fire, water, light, dark. New members are baptized, confirmed, receive their first Eucharist. And the joy at the beginning does not fade by the end. Because we worship a risen Lord.

He is Risen!

Mass starts at 8:15 (the church must be dark, so the Vigil Mass must start after sunset.)

Thanks for hanging out.