Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed!
It’s always a joy after the long days of Lent, and hopefully much soul-searching, much conversion and penitence, and then solemnness of Holy Week to finally come to the Easter Vigil, a time of light and celebration and Alleuias and new beginnings and more.
We went to the Easter Vigil at our parish, probably the last one for a few years. Little bambini don’t do so well at late night and very lengthy Masses. But we were very grateful to be there. I am glad that the innovators haven’t yet gotten their hands on the Exulstet. I love all the readings (even if we don’t quite do all of them). I love the litany and the renewal of baptismal promises, the blessing of the holy water in which our baby will soon be washed clean of the stain of original sin and the paschal candle from which the baptismal candle will be lit.
That’s what’s so great about Easter. It’s about a continuity, a sense that from this moment all else, not just in Church, but in the universe, flows outward to touch everything. The rhythms of our life are the rhythms of the Church, from baptism to confession to first Communion to confirmation to marriage or holy orders (or both!) and in the end to the funeral Mass, which in itself is just the beginning of a whole new life.
The message of Easter is one of renewal and of the whole sweep of life. It is a great joy to celebrate it, to rejoice in the Resurrection of Our Lord who died and rose again that us sinners might die and rise again with him. God blessd you all.
