Fr. John Ryan

 

EASTER SUNDAY

8th April 2007

The early Church celebrated the Resurrection in a much more dramatic setting than we do here in Ireland today. The Vigil usually began after midnight - in the dead of night - and continued until dawn, the moment the sun begins to break through that darkness shedding its light on the world. Nature therefore mirrored the liturgical celebration of the Resurrection - as the sun breaks through the darkness of the night so too Christ the Lord breaks through the darkness of sin and death and brings new life, a new day. It is a pity that we have lost a sense of the interconnectedness of creation. For the sake of comfort we tend to stick to the easy options and shy away from the difficult choices - could you imagine how many would turn up for an Easter Vigil that would last for over five hours during the night hours! It would be far less than the numbers who celebrate it as it is and, at that, it is a small percentage of Irish Catholics who actually do celebrate the Vigil - the central moment of the liturgical year - possibly because it is seen as too long. It is a pity really that one of the prevalent factors in coming to celebrate is the length of time it takes. It means that our worship becomes conditional - and unworthy of the unconditional love of God for each one of us. It is even more so when we speak of the Holy Week and Easter ceremonies - our hope in God's forgiveness and in eternal life rests on the actions of Jesus that we celebrate during the ceremonies and yet so many find it too long a time to give to celebrate the central features of our faith.
The liturgical expression of faith is the source of our Christian lives. Coming before God as community offering thanks and praise to him as a united people is an event of great import. Intimacy with the Father who loves us and with the Son who gave his life for us allows for the Spirit to encourage and inspire us in our Christian living. Fed by active participation in the celebration of the Eucharist our lives become sanctified and we grow in holiness. When we bring that active participation to the Easter Triduum - Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Vigil - and to Easter Sunday Morning we unite ourselves with the great acts of redemption and salvation. In a way it becomes the first expression of our response to the Lord's cry that he thirsts. The Lord fulfils the scripture, we are told in John's Passion Narrative, when he says he is thirsty. Although physically thirsty on the cross there is also a spiritual dimension to his thirst - the Lord who gives his life in unconditional love thirsts for our love. He thirsts for our faith response to his sacrifice. He thirsts for our holiness and his suffering, death and resurrection should be an inspiration to us all for the fulfilment of the call to holiness issued to each one of us by the Father.
As we celebrate this Easter may we recognise the centrality of the death and resurrection in our lives, its continuing presence in the Eucharist and may it feed our hope in Christ so that we as his disciples may proclaim his message far and wide.