15 April 2015

Why is This Night Different from All Other Nights?

Easter Vigil 
 
At the first question at the Seder, the meal that celebrates the Passover, the youngest child asks: Ma nishtana ha-laila ha-zeh mi-kol ha-leylot?  The English translation is: Why is this night different from all other nights?  On this night, the Passover in the Book of Exodus, when the angel of death passed over the house of the Chosen People, is fulfilled.  And so it is right for us to ask this same question: why is this night different from all other nights?
Why do we read these four readings from the Old Testament rather than one like we usually do at Mass?  We read these readings that point to the Resurrection all throughout Salvation History.  We begin with the creation of the world, and how God created all things beginning on the first day.  So on this, the eve of the first day of the week, the day after the Sabbath, we remember that Jesus Christ began a new creation in Himself, as He conquered sin and death.  We then hear about how Moses and the Chosen People were saved through water as God had them pass through the waters to safety, while He destroyed the evil Egyptians, the symbol of oppression of God’s People, in those same waters.  So, too, our Elect will pass through the water and be saved by it, while Satan’s kingdom will be further destroyed.  We hear from the Prophet Isaiah about being satisfied by the Lord, whose Word will have its effect to make the earth fertile and fruitful.  So God will feed us in the Eucharist and His Eternal Word, Jesus Christ, will continue the work of our baptism to change us to be more like Him.  We hear from the Prophet Ezekiel next as the last Old Testament reading how God, who had allowed His People to undergo the punishment of their infidelity will now save them because of the holiness of His Name, so that all may know that God is truly God and there is no other.  God will sprinkle clean water upon His People and pour out His Spirit upon them.  So we recall that God has now saved us through Christ and sent His Holy Spirit upon us, and especially upon those who will receive the Sacrament of Confirmation tonight.  
Next we sing the Gloria for the first time since Thursday night at the Mass of the Lord’s Supper.  This recalls for us the moment of the birth of Jesus Christ when the angels sang the glorious hymn: Glory to God in the Highest and on earth peace to people of good will.  We light the altar candles as the visible reminder that when Christ was born, a new light shone upon the world, and the light is Christ Himself.  So the candles around the altar, the altar which symbolizes Christ, are lit.  Then we turned to the New Testament, to the Apostle Paul, who reminded us that in baptism we died with Christ so that we could rise with Him to new life.  And that death that we experienced was meant to be a death from all that separated us from God, and all our sinful ways, into the new life in union with (we can also say communion with) God.  
And, in the high point of the Proclamation of God’s Word, we heard the Gospel of the Resurrection proclaimed.  We listened to the account of the holy women who went to the tomb, early on Sunday morning, only to find that the large stone had been rolled back, and Jesus was not there, but an angel, announcing that Jesus has been raised from the dead.  While we will likely not be here until after midnight, very early in the morning, we wait with watchful eyes and ears, in vigil, to solemnly celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.  
Tonight we gather because all of time, and especially all of how God revealed Himself through the Old Testament pointed to this moment.  Tonight we gather because from all people, katholicos in Greek, God has desired His children to share in the Paschal Mystery: the suffering, death, Resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ.  And tonight that same Paschal Mystery will be entered into by those receiving the Sacraments: the Elect who will receive Baptism, Confirmation, and the Eucharist; the Candidates who will profess their faith in all the Catholic Church teaches, and then be confirmed and receive the Eucharist as well.  They will begin to make the fullness of that Paschal Mystery theirs through life in the Catholic Church.  
Very shortly we will celebrate that Paschal Mystery in sacramental form.  I won’t explain that yet.  As in the early centuries of the Church, I want our Elect and Candidates to experience it for themselves first, and then to understand the mysteries that they celebrated afterwards.  I will let the symbols speak with their own power to communicate, and then, having joined the Church of Christ, they will have a chance to be guided in their understanding of what happened.  

But, whether you will become Catholic tonight or are already Catholic, tonight is different from all other nights because on this night the doors of our hearts were marked with the Blood of the Unblemished Lamb of God who by His death destroyed death and took away the sins of the world.  On this night life was changed forever because death no longer held sway over us.  This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it, alleluia!!