Christ Our Light

During the early moments of the great Easter Vigil, while the new Christ candle is being carried into a darkened church, a solo voice intones "Christ our light" three times. Then beginning with the Christ candle and spreading from person to person, the tapers held by each worshipper are lit until the faces of every man and woman, every child, the celebrant and deacons, altar servers and choir, are lit by the light of Christ.

This year I carried that moment with me throughout the first week of Easter, that visible expression of a new life, a life brought to us out of a violent and hate-filled death , a life overflowing with the opportunity to be close to Christ, to live in his kingdom, the kingdom of unlimited possibilities for joy.

I tried to explain the meaning of the Vigil to my R.E. class, none of whom have ever attended one.

In the beginning, the earth was without form and void, Genesis tells us, and out of nothing God brought everything we know as life; birds, fish, animals of all kinds, trees, vegetation, and humanity, a miraculous creation of beings given capabilities far beyond those of the birds and the fish and the animals.

And then something happened to humanity, to God's precious creatures. We call it sin, and its effect was to create within human hearts another formless void, a place where God the loving creator was not wanted.

God bent down, breaking through infinite time and space, to be with his creatures on earth, in time, in human form, to live and dwell among us in Jesus his son. Our human hearts, still in darkness, could not receive him. And so we killed him, the very one who had given us life in the beginning.

But God was not finished. Out of death he brought life, Christ's life, and offered it again to his creatures, saying he still loved us so much that he could not abandon us to our own worst selves. He brought us his light, the light of Christ, so that we would have a comforting presence, a guiding hand, a loving Father to see us through until the end of our mortal days and then beyond.

Christ our light!

Of course, I also told them about the adult baptisms and confirmations, and the way everyone gathers around the baptismal font to watch each person who is asking to be baptized kneel in the font, dressed in white. Then the priest pours the waters of baptism on each bowed head.

I talked about the litany of saints, one of my favorite elements of the Vigil. In fact, I love the litany whenever we sing it.

And I offered them this: if there is one liturgy to experience in the Catholic church, it is the Easter Vigil because it contains everything about our faith from the beginning right up to the present moment. It is the Catholic faith in miniature.

Christ our light!

I have always loved candlelight. When I pray at home for any length of time I light candles. They warm and enliven and always, always remind me of what I carry deep within my heart: Christ our light, the divine presence who gives joy and hope and promises a future.

Christ our light!

Thanks be to God!