Saturday, May 17, 2014
Paschal Vigil April 7, 2012
Paschal Vigil
April 7, 2012
Holy Trinity & St. Anskar
Look
upon your Church – that wonderful and great mystery..everything is being
brought to perfection by Him through Whom all things were made...
+In the Name of God, the Holy and Undivided Trinity
Tonight
is the Eve of the Eighth Day of Creation. The week has seven days. In our
creation myth, Each of them corresponds to a stage of creation.
SUN
= light
MON
= firmament (water)
TUES
= earth & seas & plants
WED
= celestial bodies
THURS
= sea-creatures & birds
FRI
= animals & humans
SAT
= Sabbath
Isn’t it
interesting how the six days of creation correspond so well to our modern
creation story, the theory of evolution? First is light, The Big Bang (Sunday).
Then the firmament, which would include that is everything outside the light,
which the ancient pagan philosophers thought of as materia prima — the vague, undefined plasma of the cosmos, which
the Hebrew Scriptures call the water
above the firmament (Monday). And out of this plasma, Earth congeals,
oceans are divided from the land, and plants appear (Tuesday).
Then come sea creatures
and birds — we now think dinosaurs were the ancestors of birds — (Thursday).
And only then, on the sixth day, Friday, did God create animals finishing with humans.
The only difference
between the order of the modern story and the ancient one is the creation of
the celestial bodies on Wednesday. And then, God rested from all of His labors
as on this day, the seventh day, the Holy Sabbath.
Likewise the Godman
re-created humanity on the sixth day, and then rested on the seventh. His labors
culminated on Good Friday, but the re-creation included all of His work to repair
creation, what the Jewish tradition calls TIKKUN
OLAM — His preaching of Good News to the poor, His call to humanity to
repent and believe the Gospel — to change our minds, that is, to expand our
consciousness, and to trust the Good News that the Reign of God is beginning on
earth as in heaven.
But changing human
consciousness is just the beginning of the TIKKUN
OLAM. The repair of creation means real, material changes, such as the healing of the sick, the raising
of the dead, and above all the confrontation and a destruction of evil — the
casting out of deathly spirits and the struggle against human structures of
wickedness and domination.
Finally, God went
where God could not go, into death itself. But instead of destroying Him, death
itself was destroyed, as on this day, the Holy Sabbath upon which God rested
again from all his labors in the house of the strongman, whom He had first
bound forever, having broken down the doors of his stronghold to despoil him of
his stolen goods. What had been stolen and is now reclaimed by God was Adam and
Eve, which is to say humanity, the earth and the whole cosmos.
The Godman who
today rested in the strongman's house is the New Adam, human as well as divine.
He calls all humanity to participate in His labor of repairing and freeing the
creation — the work of bringing creation
to perfection.
This completion of
creation is the meaning of calling the Sunday of the Resurrection the Eighth
Day.
For God's work was
not completed at the end of six days. The Sabbath rest came before the
completion of creation. The perfection of God's creation is to continue on the
Eighth Day into which we pass in this Paschal liturgy. The week has seven days, not eight. The
Eighth Day is a day outside time, or rather, WHERE TIME AND ETERNITY OVERLAP.
Now just as each of
the six days of biblical creation is itself an incalculably long age of
geological and astronomical time going back at least billion years, could it be
also that the Eighth Day — the day of the perfection of creation — is likewise
an era of vast extent? The Godman's work of tikkun
ilam — the repair of creation — continues throughout this Eighth Day, carried
on by His risen Body extended in real, historical time: the Church, which we
call His Body,. We call ourselves members His Body, by virtue of eating it and
drinking His Blood in the Holy Eucharist, which is, among other things, the
mystical representation of the Resurrection.
The time in which
we live now — our Day — is the eighth day of creation. It may last a million
years, a hundred million, a billion, or more, just as the first six days did.
The History of Salvation did not end with the Resurrection. In a way, it has
just barely begun.
********************************************
Is
there anyone who is a devout lover of God? Let them enjoy this beautiful bright
festival!
Is
there anyone who is a grateful servant? Let them rejoice and enter into
the joy of their Lord!
Are
there any weary with fasting? Let them now receive their wages!
If
any have toiled from the first hour, let them receive their due reward;
If any have come after the third hour, let him with gratitude join in the
Feast!
And
he that arrived after the sixth hour, let him not doubt; for he too shall
sustain no loss. And if any delayed until the ninth hour, let him not
hesitate; but let him come too. And he who arrived only at the eleventh hour,
let him not be afraid by reason of his delay.
For
the Lord is gracious and receives the last even as the first. He gives rest to
him that comes at the eleventh hour, as well as to him that toiled from
the first. To this one He gives, and upon another He bestows. He accepts the
works as He greets the endeavor. The deed He honors and the intention He
commends.
Let
us all enter into the joy of the Lord! First and last alike receive your
reward; rich and poor, rejoice together! Sober and slothful, celebrate the
day!
You
that have kept the fast, and you that have not, rejoice today for the Table
is richly laden! Feast royally on it, the calf is a fatted one. Let no one go
away hungry. Partake, all, of the cup of faith. Enjoy all the riches of His goodness!
Let
no one grieve at his poverty, for the universal kingdom has been revealed.
Let no one mourn that he has fallen again and again; for forgiveness has
risen from the grave. Let no one fear death, for the Death of our Savior has
set us free.
He has destroyed it by enduring it.
He has destroyed it by enduring it.
He
destroyed Hades when He descended into it. He put it into an uproar even as it
tasted of His flesh. Isaiah foretold this when he said, "You, O Hell, have
been troubled by encountering Him below."
Hell
is in an uproar because it was done away with.
It
is in an uproar because it is mocked.
It
is in an uproar, for it is destroyed. It is in an uproar, for it is annihilated.
It
is in an uproar, for it is now made captive.
Hell
took a body, and discovered God.
It
took earth, and encountered Heaven.
It
took what it saw, and was overcome by what it saw not.
O
death, where is thy sting? O Hell, where is thy victory?
Christ
is Risen, and you, O death, are annihilated!
Christ
is Risen, and the evil ones are cast down!
Christ
is Risen, and the angels rejoice!
Christ
is Risen, and life is liberated!
Christ
is Risen, and the tomb is emptied of its dead; for Christ having risen from the dead, is become the
first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
To Him be Glory and Power
forever and ever. Amen!
