HOLY SATURDAY & EASTER SUNDAY
The cross is empty now Jesus lies in the tomb and everything around us is still.’ The heavens and the earth cry out with longing for the sinless one who is not to be found, if we stop to think for a moment we remember that Jesus died and rose again on the third day. We wait, as mourners beside a grave, unsettled, ill at ease, almost not knowing what to do with ourselves. The Church has only one thing to do today: to pray through the emptiness of Holy Saturday. Holy Saturday then is the day when we experience watching and waiting at the tomb as we await the celebration of the Resurrection which we celebrate in the Easter Vigil and the season of Easter. The Jewish people have been celebrating Passover annually for thousands of years, commemorating the night in which God brought them out of slavery in Egypt to begin the journey to the promised land. At the Last Supper, Jesus also celebrated the Passover but gave it a new meaning. No longer a remembrance of passing from slavery to freedom, but through his own passion, death and resurrection we too pass from death to life with him. Until the fourth century, Easter was the only feast of the Church’s year, and to this day it remains the most important. As the Catechism says: “Easter is not simply one feast among others, but the ‘Feast of feasts’, the ‘Solemnity of solemnities’.” Every Sunday Eucharist echoes the Sunday of the Resurrection and Easter.
EASTER SUNDAY
Though it isn’t now an obligation, the early Church continued to fast through Saturday. Our anticipation has not ended with the memory of Christ’s death. In fact, our anticipation increases as we wait to celebrate the Resurrection. Some may think of the Easter Vigil as just a longer Mass which it is in many respects however this is only part of the story. There are things we do at the Easter Vigil that we do not do at any other time in the church year.
We light the new Easter Candle from a large fire outside to remind us that Jesus is our light in the darkness, we then process into the darkened church. We hear the great hymn of praise called the ‘Exultet, in which we praise Christ for saving us. The hymn says that we would greatly prefer a fallen universe with Christ to a perfect one without him. “0 Happy fault which deserved so great a Saviour.” We hear more readings than usual on this night, recounting the history of our salvation. Most significantly we welcome new members into the Church and our parish. With them we all renew our Baptismal promises. At Easter, we celebrate joy, the kind of joy that each of us longs for, when every tear is wiped away, and there is no sorrow any more no more suffering from weather or hunger or hurtful human beings. As we sing in the much-loved hymn by Fr. John Foley, S. J., at Easter, “the cross and passion past, dark night is done, bright morning come at last!”
When we ourselves rise to meet our risen Lord, in that bright morning we will hear him say, “Come away, beloved. The winter is past; the rain is gone, and the flowers return to the earth” (Song of Songs 2:10-12). In the loving union of that encounter, all the heart brokenness of our lives will be redeemed. That will be perfect joy. So in that same vein of perfect joy we say “this is the ‘day which the Lord has made.’ Alleluia! let us take fresh hope, with Christ our Passover everything is possible! Christ goes forward with us in our future!” Let us go forward together as Easter people rejoicing in the Resurrection. We need time to do all of these things well, so we begin a fifty day season of feasting with a long liturgy that is packed with all the riches the Church has to offer.
THE SEASON OF EASTER
It can seem that once Easter Sunday has passed Easter is finished, but the’ celebration continues for fifty days. The next Sunday of Easter day is traditionally known as Low Sunday or Dominica in Albis (White Sunday) which refers to the white baptismal garment of the newly baptised. Divine Mercy Sunday is a new feast also celebrated on this day. It comes almost as an opportunity in which anyone who missed out on celebrating the mercy of Christ in Holy Week has another chance. After forty days we celebrate the feast of the Ascension of Christ who returns to the Father to send us the Holy Spirit. We spend the novena (nine days) between the Ascension and Pentecost praying for the Spirit like Mary and the apostles in the Upper Room. On the fiftieth day (which is the literal meaning of the word “Pentecost”) Easter ends. On that day “Christ’s Passover is fulfilled in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit” (CCC 731). Our celebration of Easter resonates throughout the rest of the year: full of gratitude for Christ’s passion, joy in his resurrection and, strengthened by the Spirit, we continue our Christian journey.
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