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Holy Saturday
O God, Creator of heaven and earth: Grant that, as the crucified body of thy dear Son was laid in the tomb and rested on this holy Sabbath, so we may await with him the coming of the third day, and rise with him to newness of life; who now liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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Holy Saturday
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A Sermon by
Fr. Mead
✛
Easter Vigil 2008
Alleluia. Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!
In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.
This Great Vigil of Easter connects us to the worship of the earliest Church, to the very earliest Christians. Most of those first Christians were Jewish believers in Jesus as the Messiah of ancient Israel, and tonight’s service grounds the death and resurrection of the Messiah, the Christ, on those Jewish foundations.
Those first Christians, those Jewish believers in Jesus, observed the Sabbath, and then, on Saturday night, the eve of Sunday, the day of the Lord’ Resurrection, they kept vigil. They rehearsed for themselves the great prophecies of the Scriptures, the stories of God’s covenant with his people.
Tonight we had five of the principal stories: the Creation, the Flood, Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac, the Exodus at the Red Sea, and the Prophet Ezekiel’s vision of the Resurrection of the People of God, the “whole house of Israel” in the Valley of Dry Bones.
As the vigil progressed, new believers in Jesus were added to the community by Baptism. Then, the Eucharist was celebrated, they “broke bread,” to show forth the Lord’s death and resurrection.
Those early Christians had a very keen sense of keeping watch with Christ, especially on this particular night. They realized that just as they were observing the Holy Sabbath on Saturday and keeping vigil into Sunday, so they were marking the death and burial of Jesus, his descent to the dead, and his resurrection. I want to read you a small portion of an ancient homily preached at this moment on Holy Saturday.
“Something strange is happening…a great silence and stillness. The King is asleep. God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear. He has gone to free from sorrow…those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death.
“[Tonight God says] ‘Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.’ …I did not create you to be held a prisoner in hell. Rise, let us leave this place…the kingdom of heaven has been prepared for you.” Liturgy of the Hours, pp. 495-496.
What we do tonight connects us not only to those earliest Christians but, more to the point, to Jesus’ death and resurrection. First of all, Holy Baptism unites a person, whether an adult or a child carried by the love and prayers of parents and godparents, with Jesus’ death and resurrection. Just as Jesus died for our sins, so we die to the old life of sin. Just as Jesus was raised from death, so we are raised with and in him to everlasting life. By baptism we are born again, from above, in Christ.
Secondly, we break the bread and share the cup of Christ’s Body and Blood in the Easter Eucharist. We are in the Communion of Jesus Christ, our crucified and risen Lord. We eat and drink Christ as our food. He is our Bread of Life. His Blood infuses life into our souls and bodies.
Those first Christians, so many of whom understood the glory of the ancient Jewish Passover and the Exodus from bondage in Egypt, now kept a new Passover. It began sometime toward dawn in the night between the Sabbath and the First Day of the Week, the third day after Jesus’ death. As Saint Matthew’s Gospel just told us, there was an earthquake; an angel descended from heaven, rolled the stone away, and sat upon it. The angel’s appearance was like lightning, white as snow, and for fear the guards became like dead men. The tomb was empty. “Do not be afraid,” said the angel to the women, the first witnesses; “I know you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has risen as he said. Come see the place where he lay.” They ran for both fear and joy to tell the other disciples.
They ran – and Jesus met them. “Hail!” he said.
They worshiped him, and so do we. Jesus is raised from death, and so are we. United to him by Baptism, now let us receive his Body and Blood in Easter Communion. Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us; therefore let us keep the feast. Alleluia. Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!
In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.
