Christ is risen! Halleluiah! Through his death and the resurrection, the creation is renewed! We have received new life, as our old life, rugged with sins, was crucified with Christ. What a refreshing joy it is to have been renewed by the Paschal Mystery!
Have you wonder why God the Father has made us into the image of God as everything that He created was good?
Yes, it is because we are His most beloved creation.
But there is more to this. Let’s take a look at the First Reading of Paschal
Vigil Mass (Genesis 1:1-2:2).
We have been created in God’s image also because God
entrusts us to take care of the creation as the trustworthy stewards of His
creation (Genesis 1:28). And this is also a principle concept that runs through
Pope Francis’ encyclical, “Laudato Si”.
Yes, everything was good. We were in good shape and in
good terms with God.
And God has blessed humans to prosper, as He completed
the creation.
Being reminded that everything in God’s creation,
including us, who have been created in His image, was good, the death and
resurrection of the incarnated Christ has renewed not only us but also the rest
of God’s creation on earth with the Holy Spirit as the first optional
Responsorial Psalm of Paschal Vigil Mass (Psalm 104:1-2, 5-6, 10, 12, 13-14,
24, 35) reflects, though our sins have damaged the creation, and we failed to
fulfill our role as God’s trusted servant in our stewardship to the creation.
And as the incarnated Christ’s passion and death symbolically remind us, our
sins have brought countless sufferings and deaths to fellow humans.
Nevertheless, by his resurrection from the dead, human life has been renewed as
this new life begins with and in the risen Christ!
Are you in Christ, the risen Christ, today? Is Christ,
the risen Christ is in you? Are you renewed by the death and resurrection of
the incarnated Christ as you find yourself in him and he in you?
We have died to sin but now alive in the risen Christ
as sin is no longer able to rule us for we are under God’s grace (Romans
6:1-14), as we have moved from Lententide to Paschaltide. As Paul has put it, we have been crucified
with Christ and we no longer live as we had but from now on Christ lives in us
(Galatians 2:19).
Remember, during the Lord’s Supper, just before he
entered the passion and died, Jesus called us to be in him and he in you, as he
is in the Father (John 14:20) to be one (John 17:20-23).
We become a new creation and your old sin-infected
life is gone as we are in Christ, the risen Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). And
this newness of us in the risen Christ is reconciliation, as reflected in the
Gospel Reading of the Second Sunday of Paschaltide (Divine Mercy Sunday), John
20:19-31.
As our life is renewed with the death and the
resurrection of the incarnated Christ, through the Holy Spirit, we become truly
faithful, as Abraham was to God. This Abrahamic model of faithfulness is
reflected in the Second Reading of Paschal Vigil Mass (Genesis 22:1-18). And such faithfulness makes God’s covenant
with us meaningful. So the Responsorial Psalm (Psalm 16:5, 8, 9-10, 11)
responds to this Second Reading with our absolute faithfulness to God, finding
ourselves secure in Him and His providence.
In the Third Reading of Paschal Vigil Mass (Exodus
14:15-15:1), we recall how God’s providential care has saved us upon Passover
into Exodus, by making dry land path in the Red Sea. God has delivered us from
the slavery to sin and saved us from Satan’s attack, as He did to the Israelites,
delivering them from the slavery of 430 years in Egypt (Exodus 12:40-41) and
saving them through the safe passage in the Red Sea by His mighty power (Exodus
14:26-31). So, we sing God’s such
glorious saving power in the Responsorial Psalm (Exodos 15:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 17-18) to
the Third Reading.
The Fourth Reading (Isaiah 54:5-14) reflects God’s
steadfast love, chesed, to us, in
light of spousal covenantal love. God’s unfailing love, chesed, stands forever and
so does His covenant of peace with us, though the mountains and hills may be
shaken and removed (Isaiah 54:11). And this enduring nature of God’s love is
joyfully sung throughout Psalm 136. So, in our Responsorial Psalm (30:2, 4,
5-6, 11-12, 13), we praise the Lord for saving us with his faithful love, chesed.
Then, in the Fifth Reading (Isaiah 55:1-11), we
further reflect God’s providential care on us while listening to His invitation
to come to Him. Also we heed God’s call to make most out of the grace sent to
us by Him. Namely, we are to be fruitful, as we are one with Christ and
observing his commandment of love (John 15:1-17; cf. John 13:34-35). To this
call of God to us, we respond in singing and praising with gratitude for
drawing water of salvation for us in our Responsorial Psalm (Isaiah12:2-3, 4, 5-6).
Yes, this water drawn by God is the living water that Jesus gave the Samaritan
Woman (John 4:1-26), and namely the living water drawn by Jesus is the Holy
Spirit (i.e. John 7:37-39).
The Sixth Reading (Baruch 3:9-15, 32-4:4) calls us to
God’s Wisdom in His Law for prudence, strength, understanding, peace, and more.
Though we neglected the Wisdom in the past, we now know that we are blessed
with the Wisdom, for having been renewed through the incarnated Christ’s death
and resurrection. And the Wisdom of God
sure comes with God’s words f everlasting life, as our Responsorial Psalm to
this reading sings (Psalm 19:8, 9, 10, 11). And the word of God is, namely, His wisdom for
us to live a life of faith. The Wisdom of God through His word is, indeed, the word
of everlasting life. No wonder that we cannot live on bread alone but on every
word that comes out of God’s mouth (Deuteronomy 8:3; Matthew 4:4). So we see a
juxtaposition of the Word to the Living Bread of Life (John 6:35-51) for
eternal life.
The renewed life through the incarnated Christ’s death
and resurrection is also reflected in the Seventh Reading (Ezekiel 36:16-17a,
18-28). In this reading, a motif of water, which is also found in the Fifth
Reading (Isaiah 55:1-11), as the Holy Spirit, to give us a new heart, replacing our old hardened
heart, while cleansing us, as the water of the Baptism does. And this renewal
is for the sake of God’s holiness (sacredness), which was profaned by our sins.
In the Responsorial Psalm (42:3, 5; 43:3, 4), we seek the water of cleansing
and renewal, the water of new life, the Holy Spirit, like a der that longs for
fresh stream water, going to the alter of God with gladness and joy. And in another Responsorial Psalm (51:12-13,
14-15, 18-19), if there is no candidate to be baptized during the Vigil Mass,
with a humble and contrite heart, we cried out our desire for a clean heart by
the Holy Spirit, a willing Spirit of God for our sustenance, once again, as we
have during Lent.
Now the Paschal Vigil Epistle (Romans 6:3-11) reflects
the Sacrament of Baptism, the first Sacrament of formation. In this, Paul
reminds us that it is not only cleansing but to live a renewed life in the
risen Christ, dying and buried with him into death, as he had died on the
Cross. And the Baptism, being raised to a new life in the risen Christ means
having been delivered from the slavery to sin.
Yes, through his death and resurrection, Jesus, the
incarnated Christ, has given us the ultimate Passover, for delivering us into
the freedom not in the desert in Exodus but freedom in him and in the Holy
Spirit!
Now, the Gospel Reading of Paschal Vigil Mass (Matthew
28:1-10 (A)// Mark 16:1-8 (B)//Luke 24:1-12) and the Gospel Reading of Paschal
Sunday Mass (John 20:1-9) recall how the disciples reacted to the resurrection.
Rather than joy, it was fear that they had, in addition to confusion. None of them was able to figure out that the
open and empty tomb of Jesus meant his resurrection. An angel had to remind
that the tomb was empty because Jesus had risen.
The Paschal joy did not really kick in until the risen
Jesus appeared to the disciples in the firmly locked Cenacle in the evening of
the day of the resurrection, as the Gospel Reading of the Second Sunday of
Paschaltide (Divine Mercy Sunday(John 20:19-31) humbly reminds us. Nevertheless,
the lives of the disciples were renewed and set to receive the powerful Holy Spirit
on Pentecost to form one holy catholic apostolic Church.
Paschal Vigil Mass celebrate the resurrection of our
Lord Jesus Christ to renew us and the rest of the creation. This is a pivotal
point in the unfolding of the Paschal Mystery, which spans from the incarnation
of Christ in Mary’s womb to the ascension of the Lord.
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