Easter Vigil Homily of Fr Abbot Brendan Coffey OSB - Glenstal

Glenstal Abbey

Easter Vigil 2018

Fr Abbot Brendan Coffey OSB  

1 Apr 2018

Three women, Mary of Magdala, Mary the mother of James, and Salome; three women stumble across a discovery which will literally shake the very foundations of the earth. They were on their way to perform a simple and traditional act of compassion. They felt sadness and they felt sorrow, as we so often do in our own lives. What they did not know was that everything was about to change.

On this Most Holy Night all around the world, from Sidney to San Francisco, from Boston to Bodyke, Christians gather under the Easter Moon in the light of the paschal flame. This, the most significant event in human history, began in the depts of the tomb, hidden and unseen; just like creation itself. Everyone had either gone back to their homes or had run away! We have listened to the story of salvation from the very dawn of creation until this moment. We have listened to the fulfilment of promises and covenants, for this is the night!

        The Resurrection opens our eyes to behold the truth of the account of creation, “God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good”. Everything revolves around that great moment and those brave women. They had followed Jesus, they had listened to his words, they had felt understood by him and they had accompanied him to the very end, to the cross. They arrive at the entrance to the tomb and see that the stone is rolled back. This is the supreme moment. The women face their fear, they enter the tomb and it is empty!

        Something new has happened. “Do not be alarmed;” said the young man in the white robe, “you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here.” These three women do not get to see the Risen Lord at this moment. Instead the young man asks them to remember; remember Galilee and it is precisely this loving remembrance of the Master that eventually enables them to overcome their fear and bring the message of the Resurrection to the Apostles.

        Easter tells us that God has done something. Time is changed, as is history, we now call it Anno Domini. He is our history and so we tell our long story. “In Abel he was slain; in Isaac bound; in Jacob a stranger; in Joseph sold; in Moses exposed; in David persecuted; in the prophets dishonoured.” He is our tears and our hidden joy. He is the beggar to whom I give a coin and he is the secret rich reward which returns to the giver. He is in our suffering and misery as in our victory. He is in our weakness and he is our strength. He is even in the midst of our sin as mercy, patience and life. Caro cardo salutis, the flesh is the hinge of salvation.

        The Resurrection as an event belongs not only to the past but also to the present. The three women did not need to see him in that tomb, because I can meet the Risen Christ for myself here and now; just like Saint Paul, the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, the apostles and so many, many others through the centuries. Christ rose again, twenty centuries ago, but he is the Risen Christ as long as time continues. We do not discover the Gospel beginning at the beginning and it does not unfold as a story which one can believe or disbelieve. It begins when I meet the Risen Lord. He it is who lives on every page I read. He it is who is present here tonight with us.

          In a few moments we will move to the font, the Church’s womb, and bless the Easter water; the water of life. Then we will arrive at the altar and we will eat and drink and He will once more be present among us as he promised. This is the night when I can behold his light in darkness, hear the story of my salvation in his word, be touched by the cleansing waters of baptism and sit at table with him as He breaks the bread. If I meet him here tonight, then I will leave here a changed person and I will see the world and my brothers and sisters differently under this Easter Moon. The presence of the Risen Lord has become the blood marking the doorposts of our hearts. Open your heart, open your life and let the Risen Lord enter in. He has been waiting since the dawn of creation for this moment to give to you the gift of life.

Now that we have visited the tomb with the women, let us also go back with those women to our homes and places of work and bring this encounter with us as we proclaim the Resurrection.

          “Christ my hope, has risen: he goes before you into Galilee.”

Easter Vigil Homily of Pope Francis in St. Peter's Basilica

Following is the text of the Holy Father’s homily during the Easter Vigil, March 31, 2018, in St. Peter’s Basilica. The Pope also administered the sacraments of Christian initiation to eight new members of the Church from Albania, Italy, Nigeria, Peru, and United States.

*********************

We began this celebration outside, plunged in the darkness of the night and the cold. We felt an oppressive silence at the death of the Lord, a silence with which each of us can identify, a silence that penetrates to the depths of the heart of every disciple, who stands wordless before the cross.
These are the hours when the disciple stands speechless in pain at the death of Jesus. What words can be spoken at such a moment? The disciple keeps silent in the awareness of his or her own reactions during those crucial hours in the Lord’s life. Before the injustice that condemned the Master, his disciples were silent. Before the calumnies and the false testimony that the Master endured, his disciples said nothing. During the trying, painful hours of the Passion, his disciples dramatically experienced their inability to put their lives on the line to speak out on behalf of the Master. What is more, not only did they not acknowledge him: they hid, they escaped, they kept silent (cf. Jn 18:25-27).

It is the silent night of the disciples who remained numb, paralyzed and uncertain of what to do amid so many painful and disheartening situations. It is also that of today’s disciples, speechless in the face of situations we cannot control, that make us feel and, even worse, believe that nothing can be done to reverse all the injustices that our brothers and sisters are experiencing in their flesh.

It is the silent night of those disciples who are disoriented because they are plunged in a crushing routine that robs memory, silences hope and leads to thinking that “this is the way things have always been done”. Those disciples who, overwhelmed, have nothing to say and end up considering “normal” and unexceptional the words of Caiaphas: “Can you not see that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed?” (Jn 11:50).

Amid our silence, our overpowering silence, the stones begin to cry out (cf. Lk 19:40)1 and to clear the way for the greatest message that history has ever heard: “He is not here, for he has been raised” (Mt 28:6). The stone before the tomb cried out and proclaimed the opening of a new way for all. Creation itself was the first to echo the triumph of life over all that had attempted to silence and stifle the joy of the Gospel. The stone before the tomb was the first to leap up and in its own way intone a song of praise and wonder, of joy and hope, in which all of us are invited to join.

Yesterday, we joined the women in contemplating “the one who was pierced” (cf. Jn 19:36; cf. Zech 12:10). Today, with them, we are invited to contemplate the empty tomb and to hear the words of the angel: “Do not be afraid... for he has been raised” (Mt 28:5-6). Those words should affect our deepest convictions and certainties, the ways we judge and deal with the events of our daily lives, especially the ways we relate to others. The empty tomb should challenge us and rally our spirits. It should make us think, but above all it should encourage us to trust and believe that God “happens” in every situation and every person, and that his light can shine in the least expected and most hidden corners of our lives. He rose from the dead, from that place where nobody waits for anything, and now he waits for us – as he did the women – to enable us to share in his saving work. On this basis and with this strength, we Christians place our lives and our energy, our intelligence, our affections and our will, at the service of discovering, and above all creating, paths of dignity.

He is not here... he is risen! This is the message that sustains our hope and turns it into concrete gestures of charity. How greatly we need to let our frailty be anointed by this experience! How greatly we need to let our faith be revived! How greatly we need our myopic horizons to be challenged and renewed by this message! Christ is risen, and with him he makes our hope and creativity rise, so that we can face our present problems in the knowledge that we are not alone.
To celebrate Easter is to believe once more that God constantly breaks into our personal histories, challenging our “conventions”, those fixed ways of thinking and acting that end up paralyzing us. To celebrate Easter is to allow Jesus to triumph over the craven fear that so often assails us and tries to bury every kind of hope.

The stone before the tomb shared in this, the women of the Gospel shared in this, and now the invitation is addressed once more to you and to me. An invitation to break out of our routines and to renew our lives, our decisions and our existence. An invitation that must be directed to where we stand, what we are doing and what we are, with the “power ratio” that is ours. Do we want to share in this message of life or do we prefer simply to continue standing speechless before events as they happen?

He is not here... he is raised! And he awaits you in Gaiilee. He invites you to go back to the time and place of your first love and he says to you: Do not be afraid, follow me.

“I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out”.

Easter Vigil in Rome - Pope Francis at Easter vigil: the Lord is alive!

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis celebrated the Easter Vigil Mass on Saturday evening in St. Peter’s Basilica, beginning with the lighting of the Paschal Candle and the singing of the exultet, then the readings recalling the great moments in salvation history, and then the proclamation of the Good News: Christ is risen from the dead.

In his homily, the Holy Father said, “Let us go back to proclaim, to share, to reveal that it is true: the Lord is alive! He is living and he wants to rise again in all those faces that have buried hope, buried dreams, buried dignity.”

“If we cannot let the Spirit lead us on this road,” he said, “then we are not Christians.”

Let us go, then,” he went on to say. “Let us allow ourselves to be surprised by this new dawn and by the newness that Christ alone can give.  May we allow his tenderness and his love to guide our steps.
May we allow the beating of his heart to quicken our faintness,” of our own.

Full text of Pope Francis homily available HERE.

The Exultet

The Exultet or Easter Proclamation (Praeconium Paschale) is the hymn of praise sung by the deacon before the paschal candle during the Easter Vigil in the Roman Rite of Mass.

Exult, let them exult, the hosts of heaven,
exult, let Angel ministers of God exult,
let the trumpet of salvation
sound aloud our mighty King's triumph!

Be glad, let earth be glad, as glory floods her,
ablaze with light from her eternal King,
let all corners of the earth be glad,
knowing an end to gloom and darkness.

Rejoice, let Mother Church also rejoice,
arrayed with the lightning of his glory,
let this holy building shake with joy,
filled with the mighty voices of the peoples.

(Therefore, dearest friends,
standing in the awesome glory of this holy light,
invoke with me, I ask you,
the mercy of God almighty,
that he, who has been pleased to number me,
though unworthy, among the Levites,
may pour into me his light unshadowed,
that I may sing this candle's perfect praises.)

(V. The Lord be with you.
R. And with your spirit.)
V. Lift up your hearts.
R. We lift them up to the Lord.
V. Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
R. It is right and just.

It is truly right and just, with ardent love of mind and heart 
and with devoted service of our voice, 
to acclaim our God invisible, the almighty Father, 
and Jesus Christ, our Lord, his Son, his Only Begotten.

Who for our sake paid Adam's debt to the eternal Father,
and, pouring out his own dear Blood,
wiped clean the record of our ancient sinfulness.

These, then, are the feasts of Passover,
in which is slain the Lamb, the one true Lamb,
whose Blood anoints the doorposts of believers.

This is the night,
when once you led our forebears, Israel's children,
from slavery in Egypt
and made them pass dry-shod through the Red Sea.

This is the night
that with a pillar of fire
banished the darkness of sin.

This is the night
that even now, throughout the world,
sets Christian believers apart from worldly vices
and from the gloom of sin,
leading them to grace
and joining them to his holy ones.

This is the night,
when Christ broke the prison-bars of death
and rose victorious from the underworld.

Our birth would have been no gain,
had we not been redeemed.

O wonder of your humble care for us!
O love, O charity beyond all telling,
to ransom a slave you gave away your Son!
O truly necessary sin of Adam,
destroyed completely by the Death of Christ!
O happy fault
that earned so great, so glorious a Redeemer!

O truly blessed night,
worthy alone to know the time and hour
when Christ rose from the underworld!

This is the night
of which it is written:
The night shall be as bright as day,
dazzling is the night for me,
and full of gladness.

The sanctifying power of this night
dispels wickedness, washes faults away,
restores innocence to the fallen, and joy to mourners,
drives out hatred, fosters concord, and brings down the mighty.   
On this, your night of grace, O holy Father, 
accept this candle, a solemn offering, 
the work of bees and of your servants’ hands, 
an evening sacrifice of praise, 
this gift from your most holy Church.

But now we know the praises of this pillar,
which glowing fire ignites for God's honor,
a fire into many flames divided,
yet never dimmed by sharing of its light,
for it is fed by melting wax,
drawn out by mother bees
to build a torch so precious.

O truly blessed night,
when things of heaven are wed to those of earth,
and divine to the human.

Therefore, O Lord,
we pray you that this candle,
hallowed to the honor of your name,
may persevere undimmed,
to overcome the darkness of this night.

Receive it as a pleasing fragrance,
and let it mingle with the lights of heaven.

May this flame be found still burning
by the Morning Star:
the one Morning Star who never sets,
Christ your Son,
who, coming back from death's domain,
has shed his peaceful light on humanity,
and lives and reigns for ever and ever.

R. Amen.

Easter Vigil at the Holy Sepulchre - Homily of Archbishop Pizzaballa

The traditional Easter Vigil, through which Christians in all parts of the world penetrate the mystery of the resurrection of the Lord, entering into the joy of his glorious life, is celebrated in the early morning of Holy Saturday in Jerusalem. This Vigil, which the Church considers “the mother of all holy vigils”, is usually held at night, but here it is brought forward to the morning hours for reasons of local necessity according to the provisions of the status quo. The 19th-century liturgical arrangements which still govern in the church require this celebration as before the reform of the Holy Week liturgy by Pope Pius XII in 1955, the Easter Vigil was celebrated on Holy Saturday morning.The celebration takes place in the same place as the Anastasis, before the Aedicule of the Empty Tomb, discovered Easter morning by Mary Magdalene, and proclaims the gospel of the Lord who rose gloriously from the dead.

Easter Vigil

Church of the Holy Sepulcher

Jerusalem, April 15, 2017

Dear brothers and sisters,

May the Lord give you peace!

We are gathered at the Great Celebration of the entire Liturgical Year. We should say gathered at the “night of nights” or “the great vigil”, but instead we are in the early hours of Saturday. The liturgy throughout the rest of the world on this day celebrates silence and waiting. In fact, there are no liturgical celebrations throughout the day. Around the world, the tomb of Christ and the mystery of his death are “guarded”, in a great and wonderful silence, but not like the watch guards of the Gospel that we just heard. There is no fear in us, not even a tremor (28:4), because in our heart we already know what awaits us. The whole Church is taking care of this waiting, in the certainty of the glorious day of resurrection. Therefore, it is an expectation filled with serene hope.

In Jerusalem we lose this moment of silence and waiting. We seem eager to rush at once towards the joy of the risen One. Besides, the entire Holy Week has been a race. From the Mount of Olives to the Holy City. From the Upper Room and to Gethsemane and from Gethsemane to Calvary and the Tomb, the Holy City liturgies make us run all over the city, like the disciples and the women of the Sepulcher, as if in wanting to stubbornly emphasize our belonging to these holy stones; liturgies spelled out by times and ancient and complicated processes that must fit our races to those of other Christian Churches that celebrate the same events in the same places, and also of the other non-Christian communities of Jerusalem, also here to pray in the House Prayer for all peoples, as the prophet Isaiah says (56:7).

I like to think, as partial justification for this racing and this impatience of ours, which cannot be otherwise, it cannot be but this way. Like two thousand years ago, so also today in the world one cannot have Easter, if it’s not first celebrated in Jerusalem. Christ rises in the world, in churches and men’s homes, after the Sign of the empty tomb is announced here in Jerusalem.

And now we come to the meaning of our celebration. What then are we celebrating today in this morning vigil?

We celebrate four Passovers, four passages: the exodus from Egypt and from our slavery; the passage of the Lord among His people as a sign of their release; we celebrate the Passover meal, the memorial by means of which the Jewish people to this day commemorate the salvific event (“With your loins girded, your shoes on your feet and your staff in your hand; you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover” Ex 12:11); we celebrate the Passover of Christ, His passage from this world to the Father (Jn 13:1) and finally celebrate the Passover of the Church in the sacrament of the Eucharist.

Moreover, the Word of God that we’ve heard, and the signs and symbols that we saw and which we will mention in this celebration place before us the whole history of salvation: the fire and the light, the water and the bread are accompanied by the contemplation of God’s work in us, from creation to the resurrection of Christ and up to the time of the Church, with the letter to the Romans.

Pope at Easter Vigil urges us to let Risen Christ into our lives

(Vatican Radio) - Pope Francis on Saturday evening presided at the Easter Vigil in St Peter’s Basilica, with the baptism of 12 catechumens from Italy, Albania, Cameroon, Korea, India and China.

In his homily the Pope reflected on the actions of Peter who ran to Jesus’ tomb on the first Easter morning. Even though he, like the other disciples, had not believed the testimony of the women who had already found the empty grave, the Pope noted that Peter was not overwhelmed by doubt or consumed by remorse.

Like the women who had gone to bury the body, the Pope said, Peter did not give into sadness and darkness but allowed the light of God to enter his heart. Like Peter and the women, he said, let us not stay imprisoned within ourselves, but instead break open our sealed tombs and let the Risen Christ into our hearts. Though we will always encounter problem, we must let the light of Christ shine on them, knowing that He is always at our side and will not let us down

Pope Francis said this certainty is the foundation of our Christian hope which is not mere optimism or a desire to be courageous. The Spirit, he said, does not remove evil with a magic wand. But rather He pours into us the vitality of life and the knowledge that Christ has conquered fear, sin and death, compelling us to set out and announce this Easter message to others.

Full text of the Pope's homily after the jump.

Alleluia, Alleluia, Christ is Risen, Alleluia Alleluia - Easter Sunday again as the Orthodox Communities mark the Great Pascha

ALLELUIA, ALLELUIA !!!! CHRISTUS RESURREXIT, RESURREXIT VERES  ALLELUIA, ALLELUIA!!!

ALLELUIA, ALLELUIA!!!! CHRIST IS RISEN, HE IS RISEN INDEED, ALLELUIA, ALLELUIA!!!

 Let everyone share this feast of faith; let everyone enjoy the riches of goodness. Let none lament their poverty; for the universal kingdom has been revealed. Let none mourn their sins; for forgiveness has dawned from the grave. Let none fear death; for the Savior's death has set us free

- St John Chrysostom

This weekend the Latin church concludes the Octave of Easter - for eight days the Church has prolonged the joy and celebration of Easter Night so that liturgically we almost stop time to truly relish the joy of  the Lord's Resurrection.

It therefore seems appropriate somehow that our sister churches in the Orthodox and Coptic traditions celebrate their Easter ceremonies this weekend with the marking of Pascha when "entire congregations previously waiting in darkness and filled with anticipation will light up, their faces shining with joy and hope. Together they will all chant in numerous languages, depending on geography and culture, the triumphant hymn familiar to young and old: "Christ is risen from the dead, trampling death by death, and granting life to those in the tombs."

Patriarch Bartholomew

Read the reflection of His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, Archbishop of Constantinople and New Rome and spiritual leader for the world's 300 million Orthodox Christians on this great Christian festival HERE.

Patriarch Kirill

You can read the homily of His Holiness, Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and all the Rus, Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church HERE. 





The Holy Fire ceremony from the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem has taken place:

From Wikipedia:

Orthodox tradition holds that the Holy Fire is a miracle that happens annually on the day preceding Orthodox Easter, in which a blue light emanates within Jesus Christ's tomb (usually rising from the marble slab covering the stone bed believed to be that upon which Jesus' body was placed for burial) now in the Holy Sepulchre, which eventually forms a column containing a form of fire, from which candles are lit, which are then used to light the candles of the clergy and pilgrims in attendance. The fire is also said to spontaneously light other lamps and candles around the church.Pilgrims and clergy claim that the Holy Fire does not burn them. 

While the Patriarch is inside the chapel kneeling in front of the stone, there is darkness but far from silence outside. One hears a rather loud mumbling, and the atmosphere is very tense. When the Patriarch comes out with the two candles lit and shining brightly in the darkness, a roar of jubilation resounds in the Church. 

The Holy Fire is brought to certain Orthodox countries, such as Greece by special flights, being received by church and state leaders. 

The Orthodox hegumen Daniil (Daniel), who was present at the ceremony in 1106 AD, says that traditional beliefs "that the Holy Ghost descends upon the Holy Sepulchre in the form of a dove" and "that it is lightning from heaven which kindles the lamps above the Sepulchre of the Lord" are untrue, "but the Divine grace comes down unseen from heaven, and lights the lamps of the Sepulchre of our Lord." 

Thousands of pilgrims gather in Jerusalem to partake and witness this annual miracle.  

In 1238, Pope Gregory IX denounced the Holy Fire as a fraud and forbade Franciscans from participating in the ceremony.

 Information about Orthodox Easter Day and further information on the Orthodox celebration of Holy Week and Easter from BBC.

Reports on the Holy Fire from Jerusalem Post and Huffington Post

Holy Week in Jerusalem - Christian Media Centre from the Custody of the Holy Land

Easter Vigil 2015 - Pope Francis Homily - "Entering into the mystery of Easter means 'going out in search of truth, beauty and love'"

Tonight is a night of vigil. The Lord is not sleeping; the Watchman is watching over his people (cf Ps 121:4), to bring them out of slavery and to open before them the way to freedom.

The Lord is keeping watch and, by the power of his love, he is bringing his people through the Red Sea.
He is also bringing Jesus through the abyss of death and the netherworld.

This was a night of vigil for the disciples of Jesus, a night of sadness and fear. The men remained locked in the Upper Room. Yet, the women went to the tomb at dawn on Sunday to anoint Jesus’s body. Their hearts were overwhelmed and they were asking themselves: “How will we enter? Who will roll back the stone of the tomb?…”

But here was the first sign of the great event: the large stone was already rolled back and the tomb was open!

“Entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe…” (Mk 16:5). The women were the first to see this great sign, the empty tomb; and they were the first to enter…

“Entering the tomb”. It is good for us, on this Vigil night, to reflect on the experience of the women, which also speaks to us. For that is why we are here: to enter, to enter into the Mystery which God has accomplished with his vigil of love.

We cannot live Easter without entering into the mystery. It is not something intellectual, something we only know or read about… It is more, much more!

“To enter into the mystery” means the ability to wonder, to contemplate; the ability to listen to the silence and to hear the tiny whisper amid great silence by which God speaks to us (cf 1 Kgs 19:12).

To enter into the mystery demands that we not be afraid of reality: that we not be locked into ourselves, that we not flee from what we fail to understand, that we not close our eyes to problems or deny them, that we not dismiss our questions..

To enter into the mystery means going beyond our own comfort zone, beyond the laziness and indifference which hold us back, and going out in search of truth, beauty and love. It is seeking a deeper meaning, an answer, and not an easy one, to the questions which challenge our faith, our fidelity and our very existence.

To enter into the mystery, we need humility, the lowliness to abase ourselves, to come down from the pedestal of our “I” which is so proud, of our presumption; the humility not to take ourselves so seriously, recognizing who we really are: creatures with strengths and weaknesses, sinners in need of forgiveness.

To enter into the mystery we need the lowliness that is powerlessness, the renunciation of our idols… in a word, we need to adore. Without adoration, we cannot enter into the mystery.

The women who were Jesus’s disciples teach us all of this. They kept watch that night, together with Mary. And she, the Virgin Mother, helped them not to lose faith and hope. As a result, they did not remain prisoners of fear and sadness, but at the first light of dawn they went out carrying their ointments, their hearts anointed with love. They went forth and found the tomb open. And they went in.

They had kept watch, they went forth and they entered into the Mystery. May we learn from them to keep watch with God and with Mary our Mother, so that we too may enter into the Mystery which leads from death to life.

Easter Vigil at the Holy Sepelchre in Jerusalem

 

From Franciscan Media Centre:

The organ breaks the silence of the basilica, along with the church bells and the joy of the resurrection that fill the church. It is Easter in Jerusalem. Christ rises here and now. Today, just like he did two thousand years ago.


The Great Easter Vigil, the “mother of all vigils,” as the liturgy reads, takes place on Saturday morning at the Holy Sepulcher. This year, it is taking place at dawn, with the first rays of the sun penetrating into the shrine, and it will coincide with the Orthodox Easter, whose rites are celebrated in the same basilica.

[Blog Editors Note: Unlike in the rest of the Latin Church because the rules and timetable of the liturgies at the Basilica of the Holy Sepelchre are governed by the 1853 Status Quo, the Latin liturgies follow an older timetable. In this case pre-1955 when Pius XII reformed the liturgies for Holy Week and moved the Easter Vigil from Holy Saturday morning back to Holy Saturday evening. However in Jerusalem, the older timetable has to be maintained.]
The light for the Easter candle is taken directly from the Sepulcher. The deacon hands it to Latin Patriarch Archbishop Fouad Twal, who presides over the celebration. Then, from that flame, the lamps and candles in front of the shrine and those of all the faithful are lit.

After a long series of readings for the Easter Vigil, it is the patriarch himself who reads the Gospel of the Resurrection, right in front of the door where the Empty Tomb is located. In the account according to Matthew, the women are the first to receive the announcement of the resurrection.

“This is the most important place for the Church, where the Church was born, and with the presence of women, the word is spread. And even today, the first person they say saw him was Mary Magdalene and I'm happy about that.”

"There is a message: He is not here; he is risen. Jerusalem continually calls us to go beyond ourselves, to bring this message that is the heart of the Gospel to the whole world.”

In the baptismal liturgy, with the blessing of water and sprinkling of the faithful, there is a sign of hope for the Holy Land.

H.B. FOUAD TWAL
Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem
“It is my wish for peace: for the local church, for all the people who live in the Holy Land, peace for everyone! And I hope that the Universal Church feels committed to this peace, to this Christian community and to this joy along with us.” 

Easter Vigil - Bishop Brendan Leahy - Homily

 

Easter Vigil Mass

Bishop Brendan Leahy

St John's Cathedral Limerick

In the Gospel that we have just heard, the women, the first evangelisers, receive an important message that is repeated twice: Go to Galilee and you will see Jesus there.

Deep down, we all want to know where we can see the Risen Jesus. What’s more, as Pope Francis reminds us, many people today call on Christians to speak of a God they themselves know and are familiar with, “as if they were seeing him”.

But how can people “see” Jesus?

It’s important for us to remember Jesus didn’t just rise again, body and soul, for those living in the Holy Land about 30 AD. Jesus isn’t trapped in Galilee back two thousand years ago. Indeed he is no longer in any one place in the world. In his resurrection he has entered a new sphere of existence. He now embraces the whole world and is present to us in a new and powerful way in every place.

But how can we see him and let him be seen? The night before he died he told his disciples: “By this all will know you are my disciples, if you love one another.” We “see” and “show” Jesus Risen through the love we have for one another. It is the distinctive sign of Christians.

Some years ago I met a nurse, let’s call her Yvonne, who was working in England and she shared with me an important discovery in her life. She was brought up with absolutely no contact whatever with the Church. But when she became a nurse she noticed something special about some of her colleagues in the hospital. Not only were they good at their work, helpful to patients, and open to others, but there was something about their own way of relating to one another that attracted her. After a while she asked them, “What is it you have here?” They answered, “well, we try to give priority to our love for one another. We believe Jesus is present among us because he promised to be among those united in his name.” Yvonne listened with rapt attention to the explanation of a life she’d glimpsed over the years at the hospital. She found herself saying: “So, that’s it…I want to live like this…” Sometime later she was baptized. For her, the way those nurses lived, with Jesus among them, in their relationship, was the answer to the unspoken, then spoken yearning in Yvonne’s heart. ‘I want to see Jesus.’

Pope Francis has said that ‘instead of seeming to impose new obligations, Christians should come across as people who want to share their joy, who point to a horizon of beauty and who invite others to a delicious banquet. It is not by proselytizing that the Church grows, but “by attraction”.’ It is the attraction of the love we have for one another; it is the attraction of the Risen Jesus made visible among us.

In this year when Limerick is the national city of culture, we can take away this Easter reminder that we are called to live the culture of the Resurrection by the love we have for one another.

Easter Vigil - "Where is my Galilee?" - Homily of Pope Francis

 

HOMILY OF POPE FRANCIS
THE EASTER VIGIL
ST PETER'S BASILICA
19 APRIL 2014

The Gospel of the resurrection of Jesus Christ begins with the journey of the women to the tomb at dawn on the day after the Sabbath. They go to the tomb to honour the body of the Lord, but they find it open and empty. A mighty angel says to them: “Do not be afraid!” (Mt 28:5) and orders them to go and tell the disciples: “He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee” (v. 7). The women quickly depart and on the way Jesus himself meets them and says: “Do not fear; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me” (v. 10).

After the death of the Master, the disciples had scattered; their faith had been utterly shaken, everything seemed over, all their certainties had crumbled and their hopes had died. But now that message of the women, incredible as it was, came to them like a ray of light in the darkness. The news spread: Jesus is risen as he said. And then there was his command to go to Galilee; the women had heard it twice, first from the angel and then from Jesus himself: “Let them go to Galilee; there they will see me”.

Galilee is the place where they were first called, where everything began! To return there, to return to the place where they were originally called. Jesus had walked along the shores of the lake as the fishermen were casting their nets. He had called them, and they left everything and followed him (cf. Mt 4:18-22).

To return to Galilee means to re-read everything on the basis of the cross and its victory. To re-read everything – Jesus’ preaching, his miracles, the new community, the excitement and the defections, even the betrayal – to re-read everything starting from the end, which is a new beginning, from this supreme act of love.

For each of us, too, there is a “Galilee” at the origin of our journey with Jesus. “To go to Galilee” means something beautiful, it means rediscovering our baptism as a living fountainhead, drawing new energy from the sources of our faith and our Christian experience. To return to Galilee means above all to return to that blazing light with which God’s grace touched me at the start of the journey. From that flame I can light a fire for today and every day, and bring heat and light to my brothers and sisters. That flame ignites a humble joy, a joy which sorrow and distress cannot dismay, a good, gentle joy.

In the life of every Christian, after baptism there is also a more existential “Galilee”: the experience of a personal encounter with Jesus Christ who called me to follow him and to share in his mission. In this sense, returning to Galilee means treasuring in my heart the living memory of that call, when Jesus passed my way, gazed at me with mercy and asked me to follow him. It means reviving the memory of that moment when his eyes met mine, the moment when he made me realize that he loved me.

Today, tonight, each of us can ask: What is my Galilee? Where is my Galilee? Do I remember it? Have I forgotten it? Have I gone off on roads and paths which made me forget it? Lord, help me: tell me what my Galilee is; for you know that I want to return there to encounter you and to let myself be embraced by your mercy.

The Gospel of Easter is very clear: we need to go back there, to see Jesus risen, and to become witnesses of his resurrection. This is not to go back in time; it is not a kind of nostalgia. It is returning to our first love, in order to receive the fire which Jesus has kindled in the world and to bring that fire to all people, to the very ends of the earth.

“Galilee of the Gentiles” (Mt 4:15; Is 8:23)! Horizon of the Risen Lord, horizon of the Church; intense desire of encounter.... Let us be on our way!

The Easter Proclamation (Exsultet)

The Exsultet, sometimes seen as "Exultet" and also referred to as the Praeconium Paschale, is an ancient chant sung during the Easter Vigil. It is traditionally sung by the deacon after the Paschal candle has been lit and the clergy have processed to the altar. The lighted Paschal candle contains a twofold symbolism. First, it represents the pillar of fire that went before the Israelites during their flight from Egypt. Second, it represents Christ, who is the light of the world. The procession likewise has a twofold meaning. It symbolizes the journey of the Israelites out of Egypt, and also the arrival of Christ who is the Savior of the world. The Exsultet sings of this symbolism and recalls for us the history of our salvation; from the fall of Adam, to the events of that first Passover held by Moses and the Israelites, and then finally the events of that last Passover at which Jesus suffered, died, rose from the dead and by which mankind was redeemed. The tone of the hymn is very much one of joy at having received so great a gift as our redemption and eternal life.

From EWTN: This triumphant hymn and wonderful sacramental is the prelude to the Easter solemnities. It is a majestic proclamation of the Resurrection of Christ, a dramatic invitation to heaven and earth to join with the Church in joy and jubilation. It is the rite of sanctification of light and night, of place and time, of priest and faithful for the celebration of the Resurrection of our Lord. In itself, it is a symbolic representation of the Resurrection of Christ, a sacramental, preparing for and anticipating the re-enactment of the Resurrection in the eucharistic Sacrifice. This Easter-sacramental is a jewel of the liturgy, brilliant in content and composition, in its symbolism and efficacy. The hymn is filled with profound theology, radiant with youthful enthusiasm, flowing in the most solemn rhythms of the psalms, resounding in the most jubilant cadences of Gregorian chant. This sacramental, based on the ritual of the Old Testament and containing as it does venerable relics of apostolic tradition, reflects and transmits to us an echo of the glorified joy of early Christianity.

You can continue reading about the history and theology HERE.

 

 



 

Exult, let them exult, the hosts of heaven,

exult, let Angel ministers of God exult,

let the trumpet of salvation

sound aloud our mighty King's triumph!

Be glad, let earth be glad, as glory floods her,

ablaze with light from her eternal King,

let all corners of the earth be glad,

knowing an end to gloom and darkness.

Rejoice, let Mother Church also rejoice,

arrayed with the lightning of his glory,

let this holy building shake with joy,

filled with the mighty voices of the peoples.

(Therefore, dearest friends,

standing in the awesome glory of this holy light,

invoke with me, I ask you,

the mercy of God almighty,

that he, who has been pleased to number me,

though unworthy, among the Levites,

may pour into me his light unshadowed,

that I may sing this candle's perfect praises).

(Deacon: The Lord be with you.

People: And with your spirit.)

Deacon: Lift up your hearts.

People: We lift them up to the Lord.

Deacon: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

People: It is right and just.

It is truly right and just,

with ardent love of mind and heart

and with devoted service of our voice,

to acclaim our God invisible, the almighty Father,

and Jesus Christ, our Lord, his Son, his Only Begotten.

Who for our sake paid Adam's debt to the eternal Father,

and, pouring out his own dear Blood,

wiped clean the record of our ancient sinfulness.

These, then, are the feasts of Passover,

in which is slain the Lamb, the one true Lamb,

whose Blood anoints the doorposts of believers.

This is the night,

when once you led our forebears, Israel's children,

from slavery in Egypt

and made them pass dry-shod through the Red Sea.

This is the night

that with a pillar of fire

banished the darkness of sin.

This is the night

that even now throughout the world,

sets Christian believers apart from worldly vices

and from the gloom of sin,

leading them to grace

and joining them to his holy ones.

This is the night

when Christ broke the prison-bars of death

and rose victorious from the underworld.

Our birth would have been no gain,

had we not been redeemed.

O wonder of your humble care for us!

O love, O charity beyond all telling,

to ransom a slave you gave away your Son!

O truly necessary sin of Adam,

destroyed completely by the Death of Christ!

O happy fault

that earned for us so great, so glorious a Redeemer!

O truly blessed night,

worthy alone to know the time and hour

when Christ rose from the underworld!

This is the night

of which it is written:

The night shall be as bright as day,

dazzling is the night for me, and full of gladness.

The sanctifying power of this night

dispels wickedness, washes faults away,

restores innocence to the fallen, and joy to mourners,

drives out hatred, fosters concord, and brings down the mighty.

On this, your night of grace, O holy Father,

accept this candle, a solemn offering,

the work of bees and of your servants' hands,

an evening sacrifice of praise,

this gift from your most holy Church.

But now we know the praises of this pillar,

a flame divided but undimmed,

which glowing fire ignites for God's honour,

a fire into many flames divided,

yet never dimmed by sharing of its light,

for it is fed by melting wax,

drawn out by mother bees

to build a torch so precious.

O truly blessed night,

when things of heaven are wed to those of earth,

and divine to the human.

Therefore, O Lord,

we pray you that this candle,

hallowed to the honour of your name,

may persevere undimmed,

to overcome the darkness of this night.

Receive it as a pleasing fragrance,

and let it mingle with the lights of heaven.

May this flame be found still burning

by the Morning Star:

the one Morning Star who never sets,

Christ your Son,

who, coming back from death's domain,

has shed his peaceful light on humanity,

and lives and reigns for ever and ever.

Amen.