Easter Sunday: The Resurrection of the Lord
At the Night Vigil in the Holy Night of Easter
This service, the most important of all the year, begins in a place separate from the church. In that place, the new fire is kindled, and the Paschal Candle is lighted from it. The Paschal Candle is then carried into the church, and the lights of the assembly are lit from it. When the candle arrives at the front of the church, it is placed into its stand and honored with incense. The deacon then asks for a blessing and proceeds to the ambo, where (in the light of the Paschal Candle) he chants the Paschal Proclamation, the Exsultet. (CS, Exsultet, chant/JMT)
When the Proclamation has been made, all sit and begin the Vigil proper. There are nine readings in the Vigil: seven from the Old Testament and two from the New, eight of which are followed by a psalm or canticle. The readings are as follows:
Genesis 1:1-2:2, creation
Psalm 104
We begin the story of re-creation by telling the story of creation, how “in the beginning God made heaven and earth.” We affirm that God is the source of all being, and that human beings are the part of creation in a special relationship with God. The Responsorial Psalm catches one of the earlier verses of the reading (“and the Spirit of God/a mighty wind moved over the waters”) in its refrain: “Lord, send out Your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth!”
The great Moses foreshadowed this day mystically when he said,
And God blessed the seventh day.
Today is the blessed Sabbath.
This is the day of rest,
On which the only-begotten Son of God rested from His work,
Keeping the Sabbath physically by the providence of death,
In returning through resurrection to what He had been,
Granting us eternal life:
For He alone is gracious and loves humankind!
Genesis 22: 1-18, the binding of Isaac
Psalm 16
Already in the time of Jesus, the story of the Akedah (the binding of Isaac) was associated with the Passover holiday. It was easy, then, for the first Christians to see in the willing Isaac a type of their crucified Lord (as is shown in Romans 8:32). The Responsorial Psalm is placed on the lips of Isaac and of Jesus, especially where it says: “because You will not abandon my soul to the netherworld, nor will You suffer Your faithful one to undergo corruption.”
Exodus 14:15-15:1, the crossing of the Red Sea
The Canticle of Moses (MPT, “The Song of Moses,” Kelly/Thompson)
The rubrics indicate the importance of this reading by saying, “In any case, the reading from Exodus should never be omitted.” The crossing of the Red Sea by the Israelites is their true Passover from Egypt; for Christians, it is a type of the waters of baptism, from which we will emerge new-born, but the Enemy will drown therein. The psalm is actually a canticle, a continuation of the reading, and a celebration of the deliverance God gave to the People:
“I will sing to the Lord, for He is gloriously triumphant; horse and chariot He has cast into the sea!”
Drown my soul in the ocean of impassibility,
As You once did to the charioteers of Pharaoh,
I beseech You, born of a Virgin!
So that by the mortification of my body in this Fast,
And with the tambourine,
I may sing to You the hymn of victory!
Isaiah 54:5-14, God our redeemer takes pity on us
Psalm 30
Getting Israel ready to return from Babylonian exile, the prophet Isaiah spoke in terms of a marriage between the Lord God and Israel: “The One who has become your Husband is Your Maker!” As the children of Israel were brought back by God’s power out of exile into the land promised them, so too is humanity brought back from its exile into sin and death by the death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ. Like Noah in the flood, who was rescued by God’s loving-kindness, so the Lord has rescued Israel—and Christ has rescued humanity.
The Responsorial Psalm’s words, “For His anger lasts but a moment; a lifetime, His good will,” echoes the words of the prophet, “In an outburst of wrath, for a moment, I hid My face from you; but with enduring love I take pity on you, says the Lord your Redeemer.”
Isaiah 55:1-11, Come to the water!
Canticle of Isaiah
In the third section of the book of the prophet Isaiah, the invitation is issued to a banquet in olam ha-ba, the world to come. For Christians, this eternal banquet is anticipated in the Eucharist we celebrate. No promises go unfulfilled, for God says, “I will renew with you the eternal covenant, the benefits assured to David.” The only condition here is that we repent:
“Let the scoundrel forsake his ways—let him turn to the Lord for mercy.” In the Christ event, all that God has promised has returned to Him and fulfilled His word. The Responsorial Canticle, also from Isaiah, responds to the first part of the reading with “You will draw water joyfully from the springs of salvation!”
Baruch 3:9-15, 32-4:4, Walk to the splendor of the Lord!
Psalm 19
The prophet addresses Israel and asks “Why are you in the land of your foes?” The same question applies to us—why are we still in darkness and sin and death? The answer is, “You have forsaken the fountain of wisdom!” What an image of the sacrament of baptism, the waters of illumination! We have no need to experience alienation from God any longer,
For “blessed are we, O Israel—for what pleases God is known to us!” We respond to that sentiment with the refrain of the Responsorial Psalm, “Lord, You have the words of everlasting life,” and God’s final Word to us is Jesus.
Ezekiel 36:16-17a, 18-28, I shall sprinkle clean water upon you…
Psalm 42 (MPT, “Sicut cervus,” chant)
Again, the memory of the exile is invoked by God through the prophet Ezekiel, but only to explain God’s plan of renewal: “I will sprinkle clean water upon you to cleanse you from all your impurities, and from all you idols I will cleanse you—I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you.” The grace of Baptism, water and the Word, cleanses us in just this way, taking away our old hearts and placing the Spirit of God within us. This last prophecy is followed by the longing of the Responsorial Psalm, with its refrain: “Like a deer that longs for running streams, my soul longs for You, my God.” Just so the Elect are longing for the waters of the baptismal font this night.
Romans 6: 3-11, Christ—raised from the dead—dies no more!
Psalm 118
In between the reading from Ezekiel and the reading from Romans, the candles at the altar are lighted, and the church is illumined, and the Gloria in Excelsis is sung. Only after that transitus from darkness into light do we proclaim the fulfillment of all the prophecies in the splendid theology of Paul: “Are you unaware that we who were baptized into Chirst Jesus were baptized into His death? We were indeed baptized with him through baptism into death, so that—just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father—so too we too might live in newness of life!” The assembly answers this with the word fasted from for the past forty days—the ALLELUIA, which brackets “The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone! By the Lord has this been done; it is wonderful in our eyes!”
In cycle C
Luke 24: 1-12
An empty tomb? The women carrying spices were terrified to discover “two men in dazzling garments” who said to them, “Why do you seek the living One among the dead?” These angels give reference to what Jesus said about his passion, death, and resurrection. The women believe, give the news to the Eleven—and are promptly dismissed as credulous. 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.”
Propers from the Roman Gradual
Offertory: Dextera Domini (Ps. 118: 16-17)
The right hand of the Lord has done valiantly.
The right hand of the Lord has exalted me.
I shall not die, but I shall live,
and recount the deeds of the Lord, alleluia.
Communion: Pascha nostrum Christus (I Cor. 5:7-8)
Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed for us, alleluia;
therefore let us keep the feast
with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth,
alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.