Friday, April 21, 2017
Paschal Vigil - April 15, 2017
Paschal Vigil
April 15, 2017
Holy Trinity & St.
Anskar
…trampling down death by
death…
+In the Name of God,
the Holy and Undivided Trinity
Nowadays, one hears our era
called the Anthropocene: the brief geological period in which human beings have
succeeded to such an extent that great numbers of species are extinguished by
our activity, which may well also result in our own extinction. There are some
who observe that this fearful danger is really quite recent. For most of our
time, human beings posed no threat to life on earth. The threat has developed
as a result of the economic organization known as capitalism. These people
would rather call the present geological era the Capitalocene. There is controversy about this, as you may imagine.
But most are pretty pessimistic about our future. We must change or die:
evolution or extinction, and the smart money is not on evolution!
Pessimism
and entropy — things running down, the power of death as the long-term future.
It is hard for honest scientists to see anything else, because science — to be
science — cannot consider Spirit. Science must proceed without God – as though
God did not exist, and material creation without God is a tendency toward
death. The Resurrection means that this entropy, extinction, running down, and
ultimate death — all that science can properly conclude — is not the ultimate
reality.
A
couple of weeks ago on the third Sunday of Lent, we heard the remarkable and
mystifying story of our Lord’s encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well.
The well symbolizes life. Our Lord tells woman that it she drinks of the water
He could give her, she will never thirst again. Then He says to the bewildered
disciples
My food is to do the will of Him Who sent me and to
complete His work.
That is really an audacious
thing to say, considering that his Father’s work
was the six-day work of creation, after which God rested on the seventh day.
Jesus was saying to the disciples and the Samaritan woman that this work of
creation was in fact incomplete, and
He, God the Son, was come to complete it.
Audacious
as this is, it is not entirely without precedent in the Hebrew Scriptures. In
the second account in Genesis, we
read
So
out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and
every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called each
living creature, that was its name.
If we
understand the significance of the name of the thing, for the people who composed
this record, we have to recognize that Adam — the human one — assisted God in
the process of creation, because, for those people, the name is not an incidental
label, but an expression of the essence of a thing. So if God waits for Adam to
see what he would call the creatures, it means that Adam helps God to create
them. And now the New Adam is come to
complete His Father’s work: to flood the world with living water, so that
creation might never thirst again — that is that Death might be abolished — and
to breathe into the world new life, so that all creation might worship in
Spirit and in Truth. In other words, the future of the cosmos is more promising
than the Anthropocene or Capitalocene thinkers can legitimately imagine.
The
Eastern and Western churches differ slightly in their understanding of the Holy
Sabbath that followed Good Friday, the sixth day. Jesus’ last words were it is finished. He referred not only to His
own earthly life and suffering, but to the Creation of the world. For His Death
was God’s entry into the stronghold of Death. It is hard to talk about that
place, because we are talking about that which is not — nihil — the state of annihilation, nothingness, the Abyss, the Void,
the triumph of Entropy. The West tends to think of this Holy Sabbath as a rest for the Godman. The East rather
thinks of it as a very active Day indeed, in which God the Son Tramples upon
the gates of hell, Binds Its Ruler, breaks down its prison walls, and leads all
the captives out, spoiling the spoiler of
his prey, in our translation of the ancient hymn. Although this all takes place
on the Holy Sabbath, it doesn’t sound that restful! It is the consummation of
the Victory — the completion of the Work to which Jesus referred when he said It is finished.
Death
and separation from God are destroyed. The Word of God, by Whom all things were
made, now clothed in the flesh of the New Adam, re-creates the universe. What
follows is the unfolding in time of this mighty act. In the words of the final
Solemn Collect on Good Friday
All that follows in our
history — though it be hundreds of millions of years — is one Day. Science can legitimately
discern only repetitive cycles: for the fleshly consciousness, the day that
follows the seventh day, is the first day of the following week — over and over
again as the cosmos inevitably runs down into stasis and nothingness. The Resurrection, known to worshipers in Spirit
and in Truth, reveals this new first day of the week as the Eighth Day, which
is to say a Day that is at once in
time and beyond time, the Day when the
women came to the tomb before the rising of the sun when it was yet dark, and found
it empty. What happened is beyond our comprehension, but the Resurrection is
the first evidence of the Victory, the beginning of the completion of the
Father’s work of creation, in which, despite all evidence to the contrary …all things are being brought to their perfection by Him through whom
all things were made.
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!
