Nicole Annushton (Ferrante) works as the Campus Ministry Coordinator at the University of St. Michael’s College. She is a graduate of the MDiv program at the Regis St. Michael’s Faculty of Theology.
My favourite liturgy of the entire year is the Easter Vigil, taking place late in the evening of Holy Saturday. I will be the first to admit that long Masses are not always my friend. Despite my best efforts there are times when I have a propensity for distraction, not to mention a tendency for light-headedness, even at a regular Sunday Mass. Despite this, the 3-hour Easter Vigil Mass is one where I have never felt distracted, tired, or bored. As I reflect on this, I think it must be because I have always had a soft spot for a good story. Since childhood, I could always be found nose-deep in a book. Without fail, there always comes a moment in every fantasy book, where the story truly clicks. The climax, where we realize what has been going on the whole time, how all of the pieces are fitting together. In a good book this resolution comes as a surprise, something we could have never imagined on our own, but that becomes so clear once it is revealed.
The story told at the Easter Vigil is not fantasy. In fact, it is very, very real, which is what makes it all the more powerful. Yet the liturgy is constructed so artfully that it pulls at the heart in much the same way as good literature.
The mood of the evening is set, beginning in darkness, picking up from where we left off after Good Friday, Jesus’ Crucifixion and the apparent tragic end to the Christian story. However, the suspense of that darkness lasts only a few moments, before the paschal candle is lit anew and is carried into the dark church. We come to know that all is not lost, but we do not yet know why all of the events of the last few days have come to pass.
That is when the Liturgy of the Word begins, drawing, in its full form, from seven Old Testament readings, one New Testament reading, and finally the Gospel, and interspersed with eight Responsorial Psalms. With these readings, the story begins…
We are introduced first to the setting of this story, as we read of God’s creation of the world in the Book of Genesis, where He pours out His creative love in an act of beautiful and lavish generosity. His Word calls light and darkness, earth and sky, vegetation, animals, and finally humans into being. We are told that the completion of God’s creation is very good, and pleasing to the Lord.
We know that the perfect harmony of this creation does not last for long. Sin enters the world, human beings continually turn away from God, and so the story continues. We are walked through moments of foreshadowing, in the story of Abraham and Isaac, and in God’s deliverance of the Hebrew people from slavery to freedom. We will later discover how God’s own Son, not Abraham’s, will be sacrificed, and how God desires to free us all, not only from physical captivity, but from the slavery of sin.
In the next readings, we are given the most beautiful character development, as we come to know even more clearly the qualities of our God. A God who loves us with deep tenderness and compassion, whose love cannot be shaken, and who will never tire of calling and welcoming us back into His arms. We hear also of a capable God, who is able to satisfy all hunger and thirst, and whose thoughts and ways are higher than our own. We hear of God’s promise to cleanse us, to create in them a us a new heart, to put His own spirit within us.
After the seventh reading and psalm, comes the climax of the story, and my favourite part of the Mass. The lights come on, the bells begin to ring, and the Gloria is sung after being absent for most of the Lenten season. We have reached a decisive turning point in the story, because God has accomplished all that has been promised, and we are about to hear how. We are told of the death and resurrection of God’s own Son, conquering sin and death once and for all, and inviting each one of us to a new and eternal life in Christ. This is the Easter story. The story of a God who loved us so much that He chose to unite Himself to every part of our story, even our death, so that we can share in every part of His: even His Resurrection.
At the Easter Vigil, we are not just listening to a story. We are living it, are characters within it as well. Each of us, when we leave the church, continue the story in our own lives. In our spreading of hope and joy and goodness. In our bringing about a more just and beautiful world, that sings of the Resurrection. In allowing the Risen Christ to dwell within us.
So, with great joy, I want to wish a blessed Easter to the entire USMC community! May this season fill us all with new life and a renewed sense of God’s unfathomable love for us!
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