silence no longer

Acts 10:34-43; Psalm 118 This the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad; Colossians 3:1-4 or 1 Corinthians 5:6-8; John 20:1-9

Yesterday evening we gathered to celebrate the Easter Vigil.  We entered a dark church with a solitary light.  As the Easter Candle processed down the aisle the darkness gave way to its brilliance and the silence of Good Friday and Holy Saturday, the death of Jesus, was broken by the proclamation, "Christ Our Light."  

In the words St. John in 1 john 2:8, "the darkness is over and the true light begins to shine."

Soon all who were present were given the light of Christ and at the second proclamation the light began to spread and the darkness grew weaker and weaker.  At the third proclamation, "Christ our light" the whole church erupted with light and the darkness was shattered and new life had begun.  Hope springs eternal in the light that could not be overcome, "The light shines on in the darkness and the darkness could not overcome it (Jn 1:5).

As we read in the ancient Easter Sequence to be proclaimed this day before the gospel,

 "Mors et vita duello conflixere mirando: dux vitae mortuus, regnat vivus: Death and Life had contended on that combat stupendous: the prince of life who had died, reigns immortal!"

In the gospel we encounter Mary Magdala coming to the tomb on the first day of the week only to discover the tomb to be empty.  when she looked into the tomb she saw nothing, no body.  Thus begins our faith.  Our faith is founded on nothing, no body.  It is truly amazing how from nothing God created the world, and in the absence of body raised from dead in Jesus, faith is born a new. 

On the first day of the week a newness filled the world that had never been known.  The empty tomb was an invitation for Mary Magdala and all of us to to embrace the first day of the rest of our lives.  Each day is the first day all over again.  Each day is a new beginning for in it we experience fresh the invitation of immortality in Jesus the conqueror, whose love is stronger than death.

Let the Bells ring out and the GLoria be sung and the Alleluia echo forth for no longer are we bound to waste away but a new purpose is given in the person of Jesus, as the Easter Exsultet proclaims so well,

"what good would life had been to us, had Christ not come as our Redeemer; Father, how wonderful you care for us!  How boundless your merciful love! To ransom a slave you gave away your son...Accept this Easter Candle, a flame divided but undimmed, a pillar of fire that glows to the honor of God...May the Morning Star which never sets find this flame still burning: Christ, that Morning Star, who came back from the dead, and shed his peaceful light on all mankind, your Son who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen"