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Easter Vigil
Readings First
Reading: (nr. 1)
Genesis 1:1—2:2 or 1:1, 26-31a
In the beginning, when God created the heavens
and the earth,
the earth was a formless wasteland, and darkness
covered the abyss,
while a mighty wind swept over the waters.
Then God said,
“Let there be light,” and there was light.
God saw how good the light was.
God then separated the light from the darkness.
God called the light “day,” and the darkness he
called “night.”
Thus evening came, and morning followed—the first
day.
Then God said,
“Let there be a dome in the middle of the waters,
to separate one body of water from the other.”
And so it happened:
God made the dome,
and it separated the water above the dome from the
water below it.
God called the dome “the sky.”
Evening came, and morning followed—the second day.
Then God said,
“Let the water under the sky be gathered into a
single basin,
so that the dry land may appear.”
And so it happened:
the water under the sky was gathered into its basin,
and the dry land appeared.
God called the dry land “the earth,”
and the basin of the water he called “the sea.”
God saw how good it was.
Then God said,
“Let the earth bring forth vegetation:
every kind of plant that bears seed
and every kind of fruit tree on earth
that bears fruit with its seed in it.”
And so it happened:
the earth brought forth every kind of plant that
bears seed
and every kind of fruit tree on earth
that bears fruit with its seed in it.
God saw how good it was.
Evening came, and morning followed—the third day.
Then God said:
“Let there be lights in the dome of the sky,
to separate day from night.
Let them mark the fixed times, the days and the
years,
and serve as luminaries in the dome of the sky,
to shed light upon the earth.”
And so it happened:
God made the two great lights,
the greater one to govern the day,
and the lesser one to govern the night;
and he made the stars.
God set them in the dome of the sky,
to shed light upon the earth,
to govern the day and the night,
and to separate the light from the darkness.
God saw how good it was.
Evening came, and morning followed—the fourth day.
Then God said,
“Let the water teem with an abundance of living
creatures,
and on the earth let birds fly beneath the dome of
the sky.”
And so it happened:
God created the great sea monsters
and all kinds of swimming creatures with which the
water teems,
and all kinds of winged birds.
God saw how good it was, and God blessed them,
saying,
“Be fertile, multiply, and fill the water of the
seas;
and let the birds multiply on the earth.”
Evening came, and morning followed—the fifth day.
Then God said,
“Let the earth bring forth all kinds of living
creatures:
cattle, creeping things, and wild animals of all
kinds.”
And so it happened:
God made all kinds of wild animals, all kinds of
cattle,
and all kinds of creeping things of the earth.
God saw how good it was.
Then God said:
“Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.
Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea,
the birds of the air, and the cattle,
and over all the wild animals
and all the creatures that crawl on the ground.”
God created man in his image;
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
God blessed them, saying:
“Be fertile and multiply;
fill the earth and subdue it.
Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of
the air,
and all the living things that move on the earth.”
God also said:
“See, I give you every seed-bearing plant all over
the earth
and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit on it to
be your food;
and to all the animals of the land, all the birds of
the air,
and all the living creatures that crawl on the
ground,
I give all the green plants for food.”
And so it happened.
God looked at everything he had made, and he found
it very good.
Evening came, and morning followed—the sixth day.
Thus the heavens and the earth and all their array
were completed.
Since on the seventh day God was finished
with the work he had been doing,
he rested on the seventh day from all the work he
had undertaken.
The Word of the Lord.
A Theological
Reflection: Notice all the separating
that the Creator does in this familiar story. First
God separates the light from darkness. On the second
day, God made a dome to separate the celestial
waters. On the third day, God separated the water
below the dome from the land that can now emerge.
This permits the earth to be fruitful thereafter.
Think about your own birth. When the waters
enclosing you in your mother's womb were separated,
you could come forth, see the light, and begin to be
fruitful. Think about the Hebrews' exodus from Egypt
through the separated waters of the Red Sea
(tonight's Third Reading). Think about your rebirth
in the waters of baptism.
Our Liturgical
Setting: It's these comparisons, to the
exodus and to our own birth and rebirth, that make
this reading appropriate for the Easter Vigil. And
it's the separations that make the creation story a
salvation story. That is, this chapter of Genesis
depicts God as creating the world by saving it
from chaos (the formless void), by bringing
order to it. The same school of thought also gives
us the exodus story, and wants us to see the
creation as a prototype for the exodus. There,
similarly, God creates a people by rescuing them
from slavery. (For more on this relation, see
Lector's Notes author's 1990 paper on
late medieval Christian theology and Copernicus.)
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Second
Reading (nr. 3)
Ex 14:15—15:1
The LORD said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to
me?
Tell the Israelites to go forward.
And you, lift up your staff and, with hand
outstretched over the sea,
split the sea in two,
that the Israelites may pass through it on dry land.
But I will make the Egyptians so obstinate
that they will go in after them.
Then I will receive glory through Pharaoh and all
his army,
his chariots and charioteers.
The Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD,
when I receive glory through Pharaoh
and his chariots and charioteers.”
The angel of God, who had been leading Israel’s
camp,
now moved and went around behind them.
The column of cloud also, leaving the front,
took up its place behind them,
so that it came between the camp of the Egyptians
and that of Israel.
But the cloud now became dark, and thus the night
passed
without the rival camps coming any closer together
all night long.
Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea,
and the LORD swept the sea
with a strong east wind throughout the night
and so turned it into dry land.
When the water was thus divided,
the Israelites marched into the midst of the sea on
dry land,
with the water like a wall to their right and to
their left.
The Egyptians followed in pursuit;
all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and charioteers
went after them
right into the midst of the sea.
In the night watch just before dawn
the LORD cast through the column of the fiery cloud
upon the Egyptian force a glance that threw it into
a panic;
and he so clogged their chariot wheels
that they could hardly drive.
With that the Egyptians sounded the retreat before
Israel,
because the LORD was fighting for them against the
Egyptians.
Then the LORD told Moses, “Stretch out your hand
over the sea,
that the water may flow back upon the Egyptians,
upon their chariots and their charioteers.”
So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea,
and at dawn the sea flowed back to its normal depth.
The Egyptians were fleeing head on toward the sea,
when the LORD hurled them into its midst.
As the water flowed back,
it covered the chariots and the charioteers of
Pharaoh’s whole army
which had followed the Israelites into the sea.
Not a single one of them escaped.
But the Israelites had marched on dry land
through the midst of the sea,
with the water like a wall to their right and to
their left.
Thus the LORD saved Israel on that day
from the power of the Egyptians.
When Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the
seashore
and beheld the great power that the LORD
had shown against the Egyptians,
they feared the LORD and believed in him and in his
servant Moses.
Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the
LORD:
I will sing to the LORD, for he is gloriously
triumphant;
horse and chariot he has cast into the sea.
The word of the Lord.
Proclaiming It:
This passage begins rather abruptly, but its context
was set for us
Holy Thursday. Refresh yourself by re-reading
that night's Exodus selection, if necessary. When
you start this passage, put yourself in the
place of God. You're supremely confident, but you're
talking to Moses, whose credulity has been getting
more and more strained. Now you're about to make
your wildest statement yet, that if Moses will just
hold up his stick, he can split the sea in two!!!
You have to speak to this man, thunder at him,
with conviction. Make a believer out of him. As
lector, you want the congregation to feel the
tension: God has brought the rebel slaves pretty
far, but now their backs are to the sea. Can God do
something still greater than everything that's gone
before, or are we at last doomed?
The second paragraph is a bit confusing. Reading
it is like reading about the ebb and flow of a Civil
War battle without having a map at hand. Try to
picture the scenes in your mind, then read it with
the purpose of conveying that picture. When you read
the part about the Israelites actually marching
ahead with the water like walls beside them, put
their awe into your voice.
Recite the third paragraph with rapid urgency:
the Egyptians are in hot pursuit, God paralyzes them
with a blast and they retreat.
In the fourth paragraph, the picture seems to be
this: The Egyptians have turned back, but the sea
has closed between them and their fallback position.
They're fleeing away from the Israelites (or from
God's powerful blow), but the sea is rolling toward
them from the other side. Meanwhile, the Israelites,
always going in one direction, have reached high
ground. This, too, calls for urgency, then for awe
as you describe the Israelites beholding what God
has done for them.
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Third Reading
(nr. 4)
Is 54:5-14
The One who has become your husband is your Maker;
his name is the LORD of hosts;
your redeemer is the Holy One of Israel,
called God of all the earth.
The LORD calls you back,
like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit,
a wife married in youth and then cast off,
says your God.
For a brief moment I abandoned you,
but with great tenderness I will take you back.
In an outburst of wrath, for a moment
I hid my face from you;
but with enduring love I take pity on you,
says the LORD, your redeemer.
This is for me like the days of Noah,
when I swore that the waters of Noah
should never again deluge the earth;
so I have sworn not to be angry with you,
or to rebuke you.
Though the mountains leave their place
and the hills be shaken,
my love shall never leave you
nor my covenant of peace be shaken,
says the LORD, who has mercy on you.
O afflicted one, storm-battered and unconsoled,
I lay your pavements in carnelians,
and your foundations in sapphires;
I will make your battlements of rubies,
your gates of carbuncles,
and all your walls of precious stones.
All your children shall be taught by the LORD,
and great shall be the peace of your children.
In justice shall you be established,
far from the fear of oppression,
where destruction cannot come near you.
The Historical
Situation: In the sixth century B.C.E., the
people of Judah spent a couple of generations in
exile in Babylon. They were allowed to return,
finally, but the rebuilding of Jerusalem and their
shattered lives there was disappointingly slow. This
passage comes from a part of Isaiah written in this
depressed period.
Isaiah was sure that the exile and the slowness
of the recovery from it were punishment for the
people's sins. Nor does he doubt God's mercy. Here,
he adopts marital imagery to express God's loyalty
to the people, but he bluntly reminds them of what
an unfaithful wife they have been to their divine
husband.
Proclaiming It:
That is the dramatic story behind these
images. So relate them dramatically.
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Fourth Reading:
Epistle
Rom 6:3-11
Brothers and sisters:
Are you unaware that we who were baptized into
Christ Jesus
were baptized into his death?
We were indeed buried with him through baptism into
death,
so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead
by the glory of the Father,
we too might live in newness of life.
For if we have grown into union with him through a
death like his,
we shall also be united with him in the
resurrection.
We know that our old self was crucified with him,
so that our sinful body might be done away with,
that we might no longer be in slavery to sin.
For a dead person has been absolved from sin.
If, then, we have died with Christ,
we believe that we shall also live with him.
We know that Christ, raised from the dead, dies no
more;
death no longer has power over him.
As to his death, he died to sin once and for all;
as to his life, he lives for God.
Consequently, you too must think of yourselves as
being dead to sin
and living for God in Christ Jesus.
The Theological
Background: In the letter to the Romans, Paul
has a complex agenda. Admittedly oversimplifying
things, let us just say that the main issue is "How
do we get right with God?" The old way involved
trying to keep the law of Moses. The law was not up
to what people, including Paul in his earlier life,
had tried to get it to do for them. Incremental
improvements in one's observance of the law availed
nothing.
Now that's all out the window because God has
suddenly and unexpectedly shown that it's only in
Christ that we can get right with God. And you start
your relationship with Christ by accepting baptism.
Paul uses the starkest image he can think of to
emphasize this: death, burial and resurrection. When
you go down under the waters of baptism, you are
being buried. You have died to sin and to observance
of the law. They are over, over, over. Now come up
out of that watery grave to new life.
Proclaiming It:
The vigor of this image echoes the vigor
implicit in the word "baptize" itself. For the word
originally meant "to saturate." Saint Paul would not
recognize today's vapid substitutes for saturating
baptism, sprinkling and dribbling. Those seem to say
nothing about the radical change that occurs in one
converted to Christ. If the lector's congregation
settles for the vapid in its ritual of initiation,
at least the lector can proclaim vigorously Paul's
take on the meaning of it all.
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