April 16/Holy Saturday
Easter Vigil
You make springs gush forth in the valleys; they flow between the hills,
By the streams the birds of the air have their habitation; they sing among the branches.
From your lofty abode you water the mountains; the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work.
LORD, how manifold are your works!
In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. ~ Ps 104. 10, 12-13, 24
After the heartbroken emptiness of Good Friday, we celebrate the fullness of new life. Yesterday, broken dishes, reproaches, vinegar and gall. Today, the unfolding splendor of creation, retold: flowing springs, birds singing in the branches, the earth brimming with the fruit of the works of God. This is how it can be for us, too. Especially in these challenging days of disease, division, and war, we have become depleted by our difficulties, discouraged by our failures, worn down by the demands of each day. But very soon, into those hollowed-out interior spaces, carved by pain and vulnerability, will flood the inundating joy of restoration and rebirth. For the past forty days, we have walked through the dark soulscape of Lent, aware with each step of our mistakes, our shortcomings, our flaws — aware, too, of the overwhelming mercy of God who gathers us up in his arms of love and forgiveness. Safe in those arms, we offer our broken selves to him, imperfect though we are. And through that offering, what is dead becomes alive again, animated by our faith in the glory and majesty of the risen Christ. As the Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner wrote of the resurrected Christ, “One thing is necessary . . . for this irreversible deed of his to become the blessing of our life. He also has to burst open the grave of our heart, to rise from the center of our being where he is the power and the promise. There he is still in the process of doing this.” On this Holy Saturday, this liminal time of waiting between yesterday’s grief and tomorrow’s joy, we can — we must — give thanks for the mystery of the Resurrection, and strive to live out its meaning for the rest of our lives. Alleluia, alleluia!
Almighty God, who shows us definitively on Easter that love is stronger than death, fill my heart with the joy of the Resurrection. Amen.
For today’s readings, click here: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/041622.cfm
To hear the Cambridge Singers (conducted by John Rutter) sing “O Lord, How Manifold Are Thy Works,” click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt17PK4z2Co
And in anticipation of tomorrow’s joy, to hear the Choir of King’s College sing “Jesus Christ is Risen Today,” click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMwPEmUMP7U
Lent is over, its songs are finished. A joyous Easter to all!
