Gospel of the Easter Vigil in the Holy Night
1 At daybreak on the first day of the week the women who had come from Galilee with Jesus took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb; 3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were puzzling over this, behold, two men in dazzling garments appeared to them.
5 They were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground. They said to them, “Why do you seek the living One among the dead? 6 He is not here, but He has been raised. Remember what He said to you while He was still in Galilee, 7 that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners and be crucified, and rise on the third day.”
8 And they remembered His words. 9 Then they returned from the tomb and announced all these things to the eleven and to all the others. 10 The women were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James; the others who accompanied them also told this to the Apostles, 11 but their story seemed like nonsense and they did not believe them.
12 But Peter got up and ran to the tomb, bent down, and saw the burial cloths alone; then he went home amazed at what had happened (Lk 24:1-12).
I – The Grandest Ceremony of the Liturgical Year
The night before the Sunday of the Lord’s Resurrection is marked by the rich ceremony of the Easter Vigil that honours this great mystery. At the dawn of Christianity, the faithful had special reverence for this night which they spent in prayer, preparing for the commemoration of Jesus’ triumph over death with the celebration of the Eucharist at daybreak on Sunday. Starting from Holy Thursday, the early Church, immersed in the remembrance of the Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ, abstained from the Holy Sacrifice even on Saturday, keeping watch with the lifeless body of the Divine Redeemer in the silence of the tomb. With time, this custom faded out in the West, where, beginning in the eleventh century, the Solemnities of the Resurrection were gradually moved up to Holy Saturday morning.1 Finally, in 1951, Pope Pius XII definitively restored the Easter Vigil, with its splendid liturgical pomp, steeped in profound significance.
The mystery of the death of a God
Just yesterday, from the height of the Cross, Jesus uttered a heart-rending cry, expressing the desolation He experienced at the approach of death: “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” (Mk 15:34). And yet, had He Himself not affirmed: “I and the Father are one” (Jn 10:30)? Indeed, as the Father’s eternal Son, He was never separated from Him, because there is no possibility of division between the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity. Equally inadmissible was a separation between the divine nature and the human nature of Jesus, for these are inseparable in the Person of the Word through the hypostatic union. Nor could there be any break in the unity of the Godhead with either Christ’s Body or Soul.2 There was, rather, the separation of the Soul from the Body causing death. Jesus’ cry can be understood, then, as being due to the fact that the Father had ceased to protect and assist Him, leaving Him in the hands of His tormenters so that He might suffer the pains of the Passion until He expired.3
The striking contrast between darkness and fire
Death is symbolized in this Vigil by the darkness of the church and its surroundings at the beginning of the ceremony, the only light being that of the new fire. What is the deeper reason for this fire? According to the concept of the ancients, we are surrounded by four elements: earth, water, air, and fire. We know the first three through direct contact. We feel the stability of treading the earth; we delight in diving into the waters of the sea, or enjoying the pure air of the skies, that sublime cloister of the Angels, in a parachute jump. But fire? Coming close to it spells danger, and being engulfed in its flames means sure death. Yet, it is essential to life on earth, beginning with the fire of the sun, our source of light and heat.
The fire of this world, however, is only a pale image of another, far superior fire. Many scholastics believe that Empyrean Heaven is not composed of the four essences mentioned, but of a fifth―a quintessence.4 It is something reminiscent of fire―hence the word empyrean, from the Greek πυρός (pirós), meaning fire―but with remarkably different features. God removes the burning and destructive quality of this fire, reserving it for the torment of the damned in hell, and conserves its luminosity for the delight and joy of the blessed in Paradise.5 The Angelic Doctor affirms that “we may also say that the empyrean Heaven has light, not condensed so as to emit rays, as the sun does, but of a more subtle nature. Or it may have the brightness of glory which differs from mere natural brightness.”6 This special light, in turn, is nothing compared to the true and life-giving Light that is God Himself, for He is Light (cf. 1 Jn 1:5). The great St. Teresa of Jesus, after a mystical vision in which the Divine Saviour appeared to her, exclaimed: “The very brightness of the sun we see, in comparison with the brightness and light before our eyes, seems to be something so obscure, that we never wish to open our eyes again. [… ] It is light which knows no night but rather, as it is always light, nothing can disturb it.”7
The Paschal Candle, symbol of Our Lord, is lit in the fire blessed on this night. It represents the divinity of Christ, by whose power―identical to that of the Father―He will resurrect Himself8 in a spectacular way, upon uniting His Soul once again with His now glorious Body, and ending the negative miracle by which, from the moment of the Incarnation, He willed to take on a mortal body despite His Soul being in possession of the beatific vision.9 “The divinity,”―says St. Leo the Great―”that had not been withdrawn from the two parts that made up the man He had assumed, reunited by His power, that which, by His power had been separated.”10
Christ’s victory over sin and death
Before the Redemption, humanity lay in the dark night of sin and of death. With His return to life Our Lord Jesus Christ brought complete deliverance, transmitting His own light to us, just as the flame of the Paschal Candle, lit from the sacred fire, lights the candles that the faithful have been holding since the beginning of the liturgical celebration, to signify that Jesus is the Light of the world, and those who follow Him “will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (Jn 8:12).
Not only does He give us sanctifying grace, but He also makes us partakers at His table. Therefore, the Easter Vigil is the most fitting occasion to celebrate the two great Sacraments of Christian life together: Baptism, which opens the doors to all the others, and the Eucharist, the most excellent and perfect, its substance being God Himself.
The letters alpha and omega, cut into the Candle by the celebrant, recall that Jesus is the beginning and the end. The entire work of creation comes from Him and converges within Him: “Christ yesterday and today. The Beginning and the End. The Alpha and Omega. All time belongs to Him, and all the ages. To Him be glory and power through every age and forever. Amen.”11
After this initial rite, the Candle is brought into the sacred precinct where a deacon intones the Easter Proclamation, that stirring chant which demonstrates how sin was, from a certain point of view, necessary to earn for us so great a Redeemer.
A synopsis of salvation history
Finally, the Liturgy of the Word summarizes salvation history in seven readings from the Old Testament, highlighting the wonders wrought by God for the Chosen People since its genesis up until the Resurrection of the Lord, celebrated within the Mass itself. This wise arrangement of excerpts from Sacred Scripture constitutes the final teaching given to catechumens who, continuing the ancient tradition of the Church, would be baptized this night.
The first reading (Gn 1:1―2:2) chronicles the six days of creation, unfolding a magnificent plan in which God establishes man, made in His image and likeness, as king and ruler of the whole earth. In this passage from the Book of Genesis the creation of light and the separation between day and night, stand out, so symbolically related to the previous ceremony.
The second reading (Gn 22:1-18) considers the Covenant that God made with Abraham, as a promise of victory over the terrible night humanity was living since original sin in Paradise. This episode highlights the choice of a people—not restricted to blood ties, but a spiritual family, open to infinite amplitude and confined within God Himself. It is a lineage that originates in a common father, Abraham, who begot Isaac, who begot Jacob. The sons of Jacob settled in Egypt, where they increased and multiplied, becoming a numerous and formidable nation until falling into slavery when “there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph” (Ex 1:8). Again, God takes the initiative to come to the aid of the Hebrews, raising up the figure of Moses who delivers them from servitude by a succession of miracles, the apex of which is described in the third reading (Ex 14:15―5:1). The Israelites cross the Red Sea dry shod, while the entire Egyptian army is drowned in the waters, in a new triumph of God’s plan in favour of His beloved inheritance.
Next, two passages from the prophet Isaiah (54:5-14; 55:1-11) show the great compassion of God Who does not abandon His flock, despite having rejected it briefly in punishment for its transgressions and infidelities. The image of a wife forsaken and then received back is a symbol of the synagogue that gives way to the Church, with whom the Lord establishes an irrevocable and indissoluble New Covenant.
Finally, there are the last readings from the Old Testament, drawn from the prophecies of Baruch (3:9-15, 32-4:4) and Ezekiel (36:16-17a, 18-28). In the former, we see the Hebrews at the mercy of their enemies and deprived of peace for having abandoned wisdom. But God, with a more than maternal affection, teaches them to embrace it again and walk “by her light toward splendour” (Bar 4:2). Ezekiel, in turn, recalls the punishments inflicted on the people for falling into idolatry, while he also announces the wonders of mercy that the Lord will work for the sake of His Holy Name: “I will sprinkle clean water upon you to cleanse you from all your impurities, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you, taking from your bodies your stony hearts and giving you natural hearts. I will put My spirit within you and make you to live by My statutes, careful to observe My decrees. You shall live in the land I gave your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God”(Ez 36:25-28). Notwithstanding the wickedness His people, God pledges to pour upon it pure water to erase all its sins, foretelling baptismal regeneration that confers sanctifying grace and makes us partakers in divine life.
This wonderful sequence of readings culminates―after the singing of the Gloria―with an eighth reading: an excerpt from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans (6:3-11). In it, the Apostle of the Resurrection clearly shows how the elevation of our nature to the supernatural, prophesied by Ezekiel, is founded on Christ’s Resurrection, and how we must consistently conform our lives to this priceless gift, dying to sin and living for God alone.
God always gives a hundredfold in return
The rite of the Easter Vigil progressively creates a setting that fosters an understanding of the infinite love of God and His desire to forgive. He thus benignantly accepts Abraham’s offering of faith, hears Moses’ supplication, and makes ever-renewed promises that are fulfilled with astonishing profusion and generosity, delivering more than a hundredfold, there being no proportion between the promise and its fulfilment. After all the errors of the chosen nation, He still raises up the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Joseph and Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself from within it, and offers it the guarantee of conversion and the return of its original splendour at the end of the world (cf. Rom 11:25-32).
II – The Lack of Faith in the Resurrection Shown by the Apostles
This supreme divine goodness finds further expression in the Gospel.
1 At daybreak on the first day of the week the women who had come from Galilee with Jesus took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb; 3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.
The Holy Women, headed by St. Mary Magdalene―who must have urged the others to follow her―went to the tomb hoping to find only a body. This proves that the possibility of Jesus resurrecting did not even cross their minds, although He had clearly announced this several times.
Graves in those days were not like ours. According to Jewish custom, wealthy families did not bury their dead in the ground, but in chambers hewn in rock, some so deep that they had stairways for access and subterranean corridors. At the entrance there were two tracks on which rolled a circular stone, the latter being sealed.
The women found the stone not only rolled aside to allow entrance―which would in itself have been unusual―but violently removed from its tracks, attesting positively to the Lord’s Resurrection, further confirmed by the absence of His Sacred Body.
The Angels remind them of what the Saviour had announced
4 While they were puzzling over this, behold, two men in dazzling garments appeared to them.
5 They were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground. They said to them, “Why do you seek the living One among the dead? 6 He is not here, but He has been raised. Remember what He said to you while He was still in Galilee, 7 that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners and be crucified, and rise on the third day.” 8 And they remembered His words.
Taken by surprise and gripped with fear, the women did not even recognize as Angels the two figures who appeared to tell them that the Divine Master was alive. Only after hearing their words did they remember all the times that Our Lord had predicted His Passion, Death and Resurrection.
The women, first evangelizers of the Resurrection
9 Then they returned from the tomb and announced all these things to the eleven and to all the others. 10 The women were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James; the others who accompanied them also told this to the Apostles, 11 but their story seemed like nonsense and they did not believe them. 12 But Peter got up and ran to the tomb, bent down, and saw the burial cloths alone; then he went home amazed at what had happened.
The women believed, and ran to convey these great tidings to the Apostles and disciples. However, seeing their state of commotion, the receivers of the message dismissed it as a case of overexcitement—feminine flightiness had led them to imagine things. As men conceived in original sin and possessing, up to that point, feeble faith, they were unable to believe in the marvel that had occurred, because “still bound to the earth, they could not fly any higher.”12
Just in case, Sts. Peter and John decided to go to the tomb to investigate the truth of what had been reported, without realizing, however, what had happened, for “they did not know the Scripture, that He must rise from the dead” (Jn 20:9). While, of the Beloved Disciple, we only know that “he saw and believed” (Jn 20:8), of Peter it is recorded that he “went home amazed at what had happened” (Lk 24:12), and that, a few hours later, the Lord appeared to him in particular (cf. Lk 24:34). As for the others, only later, when they had touched Jesus’ wounds―for it can be gathered from the Gospel narrative (cf. Lk 24:39, Jn 20:20, 24-25) that not only St. Thomas enjoyed this privilege―did they believe. Regrettably, they, also, had forgotten the Divine Master’s assertions of His Resurrection on the third day.
In designating the Holy Women as the first evangelizers and heralds of His Resurrection, Christ demanded an act of humility from the Apostles. “The woman is invited first,” comments Fr. Monsabré, “so that she who had once been the messenger of death for man could repair her first crime, becoming an apostle of life and receiving, in this glorious ministry, absolution of her disgrace and the curse which it had incurred. The man shows himself rebellious toward faith, so that his providential unbelief would require a succession of manifestations, by which the human spirit is led to a perfect and compelling conviction.”13
Divine mercy overcomes all failings
Therefore, despite all these failings and even using them to advantage, the goodness of Jesus made the Apostles, the disciples and the Holy Women witnesses to His Resurrection for future centuries. In the thread of teaching running through the readings of this Easter Vigil, we again observe a kind of “pursuit” of God’s mercy and clemency, which seeks at all costs to triumph over justice. This, in reality, is the story of each one of us; if we glance back over our past, we will see countless infidelities, followed by new calls from Providence, along with graces surpassing those received up to that point.
III – The Resurrection of Christ, Reason for Our Faith
With the loss of original innocence, a drama was set in motion for souls on earth. Difficulties, misfortunes, and temptations assail us at every turn, and the domination of sin gradually transforms the world into a jungle, in which, according to the famous adage of Plautus, “man is a wolf to his fellow man.”14 Deprived of the gift of immortality received from God in Paradise, the human being experiences, over the years, weakness and the infirmities of age, reminders of the approach of death and the grave―a deeply distressing prospect.
However, the situation radically changed since the Word became flesh, choosing a mortal body like ours for Himself so as to suffer all the pains of the Passion until the “Consummatum est!” (Jn 19:30.) “Both weakness and mortality, which were not sin but the penalty of sin, were torments undergone by the Redeemer of the world, in order to pay our ransom through them. That which, for men, was the inheritance of condemnation, was, in Christ, a sacred instrument in the hands of His goodness. Being free of all debt, He gave Himself up to the cruellest of creditors and allowed […] the torturing of His innocent Flesh. He desired that this Flesh be mortal until His Resurrection, so that, for those who believe in Him, neither persecution would appear unbearable nor death terrifying, for just as they cannot doubt that He assumed our nature, they also should not doubt of participating in His glory.”15
If Our Lord Jesus Christ had not resurrected and introduced the regime of grace, there would be no true hope in this life, as St. Paul emphatically declares: “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile” (1 Cor 15:17). In this way, we find strength to face the torments of death as an event that passes, because, from the perspective of eternity, the time between death and the resurrection is nothing. “We know,” as St. John says, “that when He appears we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (1 Jn 3:2). The proof that He will raise us to glory upon His return at the end of the world, if we die in God’s grace, is in His own Resurrection that we celebrate in this vigil.
The faith we should have
“Have you believed because you have seen Me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed” (Jn 20:29). All Catholics are blessed today for, although we have not seen, we believe that He has broken the shackles of death. We believe because we have the shining virtue of faith, instilled in our souls at Baptism.
Faith was required of Abraham when he was promised that he would be the father of a multitude of descendants, more numerous than the stars of heaven and the sands on the seashore (cf. Gn 22:16-17); faith was necessary for the Hebrew people to cross the Red Sea with the Egyptians at their heels; faith was asked of the Jews when they had deteriorated and stooped to idolatry, to believe that they would one day receive a new heart and a new spirit; and faith was indispensable for the Apostles to believe in the Resurrection of the Lord. Faith already has a history and a tradition in which so many Saints have preceded us over the centuries, but it has become more necessary than ever today. This faith enters God’s plans just like the drop of water added by the priest to the chalice of wine to be consecrated at Mass.
The Church will triumph!
Humanity has reached an advanced stage of a centuries-old process, in which it is gradually being incited by hell to separate itself from God. In the attempt to defeat the Holy Church and extinguish its light―which is Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself―satan works to extinguish the flame of faith in souls, to achieve the resulting paganization of the world; a society embroiled in chaos, heading toward anarchy, in which virtue is a rarity, and sin holds sway. It is night!
“C’est la nuit qu’il est beau de croire à la lumière!16 How beautiful, how glorious, and meritorious it is to believe in the light at night! We know that the darkness cannot overcome this light (cf. Jn 1:5), because it is divine! She is the Mystical Bride of Christ without spot or wrinkle (cf. Eph 5:27), built by Him, born from His side when Longinus pierced it through with his spear. The Church is our Mother, our light, our path of salvation, who dispenses the Sacraments and sanctifies us! She is always willing to forgive us, just as the Redeemer Himself forgave the Good Thief on the Cross; she helps us to rise from our falls, and keeps us from fainting along the way. This is the Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church, whose solidity rests in the promise of her Founder: “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build My Church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it” (Mt 16:18).
Blessed will be those who contemplate the victory of light over the darkness of this world, when the Church crushes the accursed serpent’s head and shines in all continents with unequalled splendour and glory. It will be the plenitude of the effects of Our Lord Jesus Christ’s most Precious Blood poured out on Calvary, and of His triumphant Resurrection, which the Church jubilantly celebrates today. ◊
Notes
1 Cf. GUÉRANGER, OSB, Prosper. L’Année Liturgique. La Passion et la Semaine Sainte. (Ed.26). Tours: Alfred Mame et fils, 1921, p.607-608.
2 Cf. ST. THOMAS AQUINAS. Summa Theologiæ, III, q.50, a.2-3.
3 Cf. Idem, a.2, ad 1; SUÁREZ, SJ, Francisco. Disp.38, sec.2, n.5.In: Misterios de la Vida de Cristo, vol. II. Madrid: BAC, 1950, p.153-154.
4 Cf. PESSION, Pierre-Joseph. Le Paradis. Aoste: Catholique, 1899, p.120-123.
5 Cf. ST. THOMAS AQUINAS, op. cit., I, q.61, a.4; Suppl., q.97, a.1; Suppl. q.97, a.4.
6 Idem, I, q.66, a.3, ad 4.
7 ST TERESA OF AVILA. Libro de la vida, c. XXVIII, n.5. In: Obras Completas, vol. I. Burgos: El Monte Carmelo, 1915, p.219.
8 Cf. ST. THOMAS AQUINAS, op. cit., III, q.53, a.4, ad 1.
9 Cf. Idem, q.14, a.1, ad 2.
10 ST. LEO THE GREAT. De Passione Domini, Sermo XX (Sabb. Sancto in pervigiliis Paschae), n.2. In: Sermons, vol. III (S.Chr. 74bis – hom.58 [LXXI]). Paris: Du Cerf, 2004, p.247.
11 EASTER VIGIL. The Blessing of the Fire and Preparation of the Candle. In: THE ROMAN MISSAL. English translation according to the Third Typical Edition approved by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and confirmed by the Apostolic See. Chicago: Liturgy Training Publications, 2011, p.345.
12 ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM. Contra anomœos homilia VIII: De petitionem matris filiorum Zebedæi, n.4: MG 48, 774..
13 MONSABRÉ, OP, Jacques-Marie-Louis. Le Triomphateur. In: Exposition du Dogme Catholique, vol. VIII: Vie de Jésus-Christ. Carême 1880. (Ed.9). Paris: Lethielleux, 1903, p.285-286.
14 PLAUTUS, Titus Maccius. Asinaria, Act. II 4, 88. In: Comedias, vol. I. Madrid: Gredos, 1992, p.138.
15 ST. LEO THE GREAT, op. cit., Sermo XXI, hom.59 [LXXII], n.2, p.259.
16 ROSTAND, Edmond. Chantecler. Paris: Pierre Lafitte et Cie, 1910, p.124.