St. Augustine, in fact, calls this Vigil, the Easter Vigil, the “Mother of all Holy Vigils,” because tonight, we stand on the cusp of our salvation, tonight, we keep vigil for the dawn of the Resurrection.
This is why we begin in darkness, lighting a new fire from which a new candle, the work of bees, as it says in the Exultet, becomes a symbol of Christ our light and the Pillar of Fire that led the Israelites to freedom. And, we followed that fire, that Light of Christ to the promised land of this church, leading us before Him who is our hope of salvation, leading us to the one who cast out the very darkness of sin and death, destroying both by stretching out his arms upon a cross. For, in the words of St. Maximus of Turin: “The light of Christ is an endless day that knows no night.”
And, then we listened to the countless ways in which God has revealed Himself throughout history, seeing His very Will unfold in these pages, in this liturgy, from creation to Resurrection and we see our part in it, we see what Christ did, why He did it, and why it makes any difference at all.
Because it renews our understanding of who we are not just as Christians but as individuals, as those who were created and called by God for a purpose, as those who celebrate the very truth, reality, and crowning achievement of creation, the Resurrection.
This is why tonight the reality of our faith reaches its culmination, and the anticipation and joy of our salvation, of our sanctification, reaches its pinnacle.
Because this is the night that our entire lives have led up to, this is the night that reminds us of what Christ did for us and why it matters, because this is the night, as it says in the Exultet “When Christ broke the prison-bars of death and rose victorious from the underworld.”
Tonight, the very grave itself, that one thing that brings all of us the greatest fear, frustration, anxiety, and sadness was destroyed. Death itself died with Christ’s death, death itself lost all power and, as a result, creation itself was changed, everything was transformed, so that the blood stained Cross we venerated on Good Friday became the same symbol of our redemption on Sunday, so that death became life, and life was renewed.
Tonight then, is not just a continuation of our celebration of Christmas, but the very fulfillment of the mystery of the Incarnation, because the Cross is more than just a symbol of the sacrifice we have recalled these past couple of days, it is the very marriage of Heaven to earth, of the divine to the human, as it says in the Exultet.
The Cross, therefore, was and is the bridge from this world to the next, the Cross joined our universe to God’s so that Heaven was not just opened by the Cross, but became the very road to our salvation.
In fact, in what has become an iconic image, when the fire was extinguished in the Notre Dame Cathedral, and they opened the doors, the first image was a Cross almost glowing gold in the darkness, and below it, the image of the Pieta, Mary holding her lifeless child in her arms. It was as if to show that even in the midst of a great tragedy, even in the midst of a church in ruins, from the smoke and the ashes, the one thing that always stands, the one thing that brings light to the greatest of darkness is, indeed, the Cross.
Therefore, the Cross still exists, not just as a reminder of the violence that was done, or the sacrifice that was made, but as a symbol and an example of how Christ destroyed its power, drained death of its strength and made it, as He makes us, a new creation in Him.
This is why if it is the cross that truly gives our lives meaning, then it is, indeed, the Resurrection that is the culmination of the cross. In fact, the truth is, if Christ did not rise, we would not be Christians, we would not be here at this very moment right now, we would not even be in this church, we would not gather every Sunday, we would have nothing to celebrate.
Christianity itself would make absolutely no sense, and it would appear, as our Gospel puts it, indeed, as sheer nonsense, venerating a cross, as we did on Good Friday, would seem futile, and our own death, would not just be pointless but hopeless, because, not only did Christ rise, but by His rising in our same flesh He sanctified it, He made it holy, so we could share in His same Resurrection.
Tonight then, we have not only re-enacted the entire history of our salvation, we have partaken of it, as we do every Sunday, we have become what we believe and we live what we have done. Because, we know that our salvation did not end on that cross, we know that the Resurrection, the empty cross glowing in the darkness, is not a fairytale, as the world would have us believe. We know, rather, that this is the most amazing miracle in the world, that it is the not just the culmination of our faith, but, indeed, the very essence of it.
So that the wood of the tree that crucified Him, has become the beacon of our salvation, the blood that He shed, the gold with which He purchased us, and the stone that sealed His tomb, the doorway to Heaven.
That is why when we say “He is Risen!” it is more than just another pious thing to say, it is the very essence of what we long for, the very source of our strength and the foundation of our faith.
It is our hope, it is our foundation, and it is, indeed, the reason we are Catholic, because in the words of St. Augustine we are an Easter people.
This is why the song, the unbroken song, the word that emerges from our lips, the word that defines us is the one word we buried at the beginning of Lent and, like Christ, has risen again. A word so powerful that it can cause churches throughout the world to shake, a word that we will say for the next 50 days and beyond, a word that we will sing, say and shout until our throats are raw, because the strife is over, the battle is done, it is a word we will mix with all other words, and is the perfect summation of this night, of this season, of our lives, which why it is the only word we need now say today and forever. Alleluia!
It is the only proper way to summarize it all, because it means “praise God,” and that is all we can do, that is what we are called to do, praise Him, because, this night reminds us of the reality of what Christ did for us, it reminds us that our faults were washed away, that our hope was restored and that our lives were, indeed, changed.
Let us then roll back the stone, because, tonight, Christ is Risen! Tonight, like those in the Gospel, like those who saw that cross in the darkness, we are amazed once again, and by it, we are made a new creation in Him. Therefore, let us with one voice, say it loudly, say it joyfully, and say it often: Alleluia!
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