In the Easter proclamation, commonly known as “Exsultet”, which is sung by the deacon or a cantor almost at the beginning of the Easter Vigil celebration on Holy Saturday, the Church joyfully proclaims that Christ’s resurrection is the true medicine of immortality. While the church remains lit only by the people’s candles and the Paschal candle and the people take their seats for the Liturgy of the Word, the deacon lights the community of believers with the sure hope that Christ has truly risen!
“Rejoice, heavenly powers! Sing choirs of angels! Exult, all creation around God’s throne! Jesus Christ, our King is risen! Sound the trumpet of salvation! Rejoice, O earth, in shining splendour, radiant in the brightness of your King! Christ has conquered! Glory fills you!
“Darkness vanishes forever! Rejoice, O Mother Church! Exult in glory!
The risen Saviour shines upon you! Let this place resound with joy, echoing the mighty song of all God’s people!”
In these three stanzas, taken from the hymn in praise of the paschal candle that represents the Risen Christ and which is sung by the deacon in the liturgy of Holy Saturday, joy abounds around the indubitable fact that Christ has truly risen. His victory over sin and death is complete.
Thanks to his resurrection, Christ, “the light of the world” (Jn 8, 12; 9, 5), proved himself to be “the light [that] shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (Jn 1, 5). In fact, Saint Paul emphasises the same theme in his letter to the Romans when he says: “For we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God” (Rom 6, 9-10). By his resurrection, Jesus showed once and for all that he is “the true light that enlightens every man” (Jn 1, 9). In other words, the Risen Jesus gives us the encouraging assurance that the light of life, forgiveness and mercy will always prevail over the darkness of death, revenge and cruelty.
When writing to the Romans, the Apostle of the Gentiles reminded them that amid the corruption and vindictiveness that engulfed them, their Christian existence motivated them to overcome the power of evil that surrounded them. As Christians they were the “children of light” (Eph 5, 8). Thus, they were to bear witness to the reality that Christ had not risen from the dead simply for himself but also to empower those who believe in him to transform the corrupted environment they live in, thanks to their being open to his life-giving Spirit. Indeed, in the third part of his Summa Theologiae, Saint Thomas Aquinas states: “Alleluia! Christ is truly risen! We can make absolutely no qualification of this fact whatever. Christ has really, truly, and substantially risen, Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, from the dead.
“The whole Christ has risen indeed for the completion of the work of our redemption. For just as by dying He endured all evil to deliver us from evil, so was He glorified in rising to advance us to good things, according to Romans 4:25 which says that ‘He was put to death for our trespasses and raised for our justification’” (Summa Theologiae, III, q. 53, a. 1, c).
In his contribution, the Angelic Doctor said: “So was He (Christ) glorified in rising to advance us to good things”. Jesus’ resurrection inherently urges us to be his witnesses. The Risen Lord entrusts us with the same commission he entrusted to Mary Magdalene: “Go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God” (Jn 20, 17). He wants us to be Easter people!
That is why Pope John Paul II never tired of reminding us: “Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song.” But how can we be the Easter people and sing hallelujah continuously when we find ourselves in all sorts of troubles just because we want to follow Jesus Christ?
Saint Paul shows us how to be the Easter and hallelujah people, namely by ‘walk[ing] as children of light’ (Eph 5, 8). In other words, being authentic witnesses of Christ’s resurrection by letting our words, actions and thoughts be anointed and led by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Risen Jesus! The letter to the Ephesians is an outstanding guide to our destination. “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But fornication and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is fitting among saints. Let there be no filthiness, nor silly talk, nor levity, which are not fitting; but instead let there be thanksgiving. Be sure of this, that no fornicator or impure man, or one who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for it is because of these things that the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not associate with them, for once you were darkness, but now you are in the light of the Lord; walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is a shame even to speak of the things that they do in secret; but when anything is exposed by the light it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it is said, ‘Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light.’ Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart, always and for everything giving thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father. Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ”
(Eph 5, 1-21).
The mystery of Easter occurs each and every time we celebrate the Eucharist, the true medicine of immortality. In fact, after the consecration we, the liturgical synaxis, passionately proclaim the mystery of faith: “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again”. The Eucharist is the food and drink of Jesus’ resurrected body and blood. As Pope John Paul II said on 28 May 1996. “Every time we celebrate the Eucharist in the Church, we recall the death of the Saviour, we proclaim his Resurrection as we await his return. Thus, no sacrament is greater or more precious than that of the Eucharist; and when we receive Communion, we are incorporated into Christ. Our life is transformed and taken up by the Lord… The Eucharistic mystery is in fact the ‘summit of evangelisation’ (Lumen gentium, n. 28), for it is the most eminent testimony to Christ’s Resurrection”.
Let us receive the Eucharist frequently, which, in Saint Ignatius of Antioch’s words in his letter to the Ephesians, is “the medicine of immortality, the antidote we take in order not to die but to live forever in Jesus Christ”. Amen! Halleluiah!
Mario Attard OFM Cap