'An encounter with a Person, with Christ, dead and Risen.' Sunday Reflections, Easter Sunday

Resurrection of Christ

Francesco Bassano [Web Gallery of Art]

The notes on Web Gallery of Art state: Resurrection of Christ was commissioned for the Chiesa del Santissimo Redentore (Church of the Most Holy Redeemer) - built in thanksgiving for deliverance from the plague that decimated Venice from 1575 to 1576, in which some 46,000 people died. 

The Easter Vigil in the Holy Night

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

At the Mass during the Day

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

          

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Gospel John 20:1-9 (New Revised  Standard Version, Anglicised Catholic Edition) 

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.’ Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went towards the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

John 20:1-9 in Filipino Sign Language

At the great feasts of the Church, Easter, Pentecost and Christmas, I find myself tongue-tied. I look to others to express something of the meaning of these celebrations. Here is the Regina Coeli talk that Pope Benedict XVI gave on Easter Monday 2007. I have highlighted parts of his address in which the Pope calls each of us to proclaim the Gospel in our daily lives. He also reminds us, as he did so often, that our Christian faith is not born from the acceptance of a doctrine but from an encounter with a Person, with Christ, dead and Risen.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

We are still filled with the spiritual joy that the solemn celebrations of Easter truly bring to believers' hearts. Christ is risen! The liturgy devotes to this immense mystery not only a day - it would be too little for such joy-, but at least 50 days, that is, the entire Easter Season, which ends with Pentecost.

Easter Sunday, moreover, is an absolutely special day which extends for the whole of this week until next Sunday and forms the Octave of Easter.

In the atmosphere of Paschal joy, today's liturgy takes us back to the sepulchre where, according to St Matthew's account, impelled by their love for him, Mary of Magdala and the other Mary went to ‘visit’ Jesus' tomb. The Evangelist tells us that he comes to meet them and says: ‘Do not be afraid; go and tell my brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see me’ (Mt 28: 10).

The joy they felt at seeing their Lord was truly indescribable and, filled with enthusiasm, they ran to tell the disciples.

The Risen One also repeats to us today, as to these women who stayed by Jesus during the Passion, not to be afraid to become messengers of the proclamation of his Resurrection. Those who encounter the Risen Jesus and entrust themselves docilely to him have nothing to fear. This is the message that Christians are called to spread to the very ends of the earth.

The Christian faith, as we know, is not born from the acceptance of a doctrine but from an encounter with a Person, with Christ, dead and Risen.

In our daily lives, dear friends, there are so many opportunities to proclaim this faith of ours to others simply and with conviction, so that from our encounter their faith can grow.

And it is more urgent than ever that the men and women of our age know and encounter Jesus, and, also thanks to our example, allow themselves to be won over by him.

The Gospel says nothing about the Mother of the Lord, of Mary, but Christian tradition rightly likes to contemplate her while with joy greater than anyone else's she embraces her divine Son, whom she had held close when he was taken down from the Cross. Now, after the Resurrection, the Mother of the Redeemer rejoices with Jesus' ‘friends’, who constitute the new-born Church.

As I renew my heartfelt Easter greetings to you all, I invoke her, the Regina Caeli [Queen of Heaven], so that she may keep alive in each one of us faith in the Resurrection and may make us messengers of the hope and love of Jesus Christ.

Deacon singing the Exsultet [Wikipedia]

The Exsultet, the Easter Proclamation sung at the beginning of the Easter Vigil after the blessing of the Paschal Candle, contains these remarkable words: 

O certe necessárium Adæ peccatum,

quod Christi morte delétum est!

O felix culpa,

quæ talem ac tantum méruit habére Redemptórem!

'O truly necessary sin of Adam,

destroyed completely by the Death of Christ!

'O happy fault

that earned so great, so glorious a Redeemer!'

Scottish poet Edwin Muir (1887-1959) captures something of the meaning of this in his poem One Foot in Eden, which is included in the poetry section of the Breviary used in Australia, England & Wales, Ireland and Scotland.

One Foot in Eden

One foot in Eden still, I stand

And look across the other land.

The world’s great day is growing late,

Yet strange these fields that we have planted

So long with crops of love and hate.

Time’s handiworks by time are haunted,

And nothing now can separate

The corn and tares compactly grown.

The armorial weed in stillness bound

About the stalk; these are our own.

Evil and good stand thick around

In fields of charity and sin

Where we shall lead our harvest in.

Yet still from Eden springs the root

As clean as on the starting day.

Time takes the foliage and the fruit

And burns the archetypal leaf

To shapes of terror and of grief

Scattered along the winter way.

But famished field and blackened tree

Bear flowers in Eden never known.

Blossoms of grief and charity

Bloom in these darkened fields alone.

What had Eden ever to say

Of hope and faith and pity and love

Until was buried all its day

And memory found its treasure trove?

Strange blessings never in Paradise

Fall from these beclouded skies.

Music for Easter


Regina Coeli
Gregorian Chant

Regina Coeli
Setting by Tomás Luis deVictoria, sung by Voces 8

Regina caeli, laetare, alleluia;

Quia quem meruisti portare, alleluia,

Resurrexit, sicut dixit, alleluia:

Ora pro nobis Deum, alleluia.

℣. Gaude et laetare, Virgo Maria, alleluia.

℟. Quia surrexit Dominus vere, alleluia.

Oremus.

Deus, qui per resurrectionem Filii tui Domini nostri Iesu Christi, mundum laetificare dignatus es: praesta, quaesumus, ut, per eius Genetricem Virginem Mariam, perpetuae capiamus gaudia vitae. Per Christum, Dominum nostrum. ℟. Amen.

The musical setting is of the words in bold. During the Easter Season these are sung or recited at the end of Compline, the Church's Night Prayer.

The whole text is recited instead of the Angelus during the Easter Season, traditionally at noon and at 6pm, and sometimes at 6am or early in the morning.

Below are the words in Irish and in English.

Déan gairdeas, a Bhanríon na bhflaitheas, alleluia,

Óir an Té arbh fhiú thú é a iompar, alleluia.
D’aiséirigh sé mar a dúirt, alleluia,

Guigh orainn chun Dé, alleluia.

R. Déan áthas agus gairdeas, a Mhaighdean Mhuire, alleluia,

F. Óir d’éirigh an Tiarna go fíor, alleluia.

Guímis

A Dhia a dheonaigh áthas a thabhairt don domhan trí aiséirí do Mhic, ár dTiarna Íosa Críost, tabhair dúinn, impímid ort, trí idirghuí na Maighdine Muire, a Mháthair, go bhfaighimis gairdeas na beatha síoraí. Tríd an gCríost céanna ár dTiarna. Amen.

Queen of Heaven, rejoice. Alleluia.
For He, whom thou wast worthy to bear. Alleluia.
Has risen as He said. Alleluia.
Pray for us to God. Alleluia.

V. Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary. Alleluia.
R. Because the Lord is truly risen, Alleluia.

Let us pray

O God, Who by the Resurrection of Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, hast been pleased to give joy to the whole world, grant we beseech Thee, that through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, His Mother, we may attain the joys of eternal life. Through the same Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Setting by William Byrd

Sung by the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, England

At the Mass during the Day

Antiphona ad communionem    Communion Antiphon 1 Cor 5:7-8

Pascha nostrum immolatus est Christus, alleluia;

Christ our Passover has been sacrificed, alleluia;

itaque epulemur in azymiz sinceritatis et veritatis, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.

therefore let us keep the feast with the unleavened bread if purity and turth, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.

An Easter Song from Beirut, Lebanon, 2011

Lebanon is a country that has suffered greatly through wars. The Civil War lasted from 1975 to 1990 with great loss of life. Another war occurred in 2006. But above is a joyful proclamation in Arabic of the Resurrection of Jesus recorded at Easter 2011 in a shopping mall in Beirut. The population of Lebanon is estimated to be 6.8 million. 54 per cent are Muslims and about 40 per cent Christians. More than half of these are Maronite Catholics, in full communion with Rome. The rest are Catholics of other rites and members of various Orthodox churches. The video too may remind us that most of the Christians in the Middle East are Arabs and descendants of the earliest Christians.. 

May the joy of the Resurrection shown by these singers who had lived through wars be a sign of hope for us at this Easter in the midst of the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic that has made it impossible for most of us to celebrate our greatest Christian feast in church.

The Resurrection

Passignano [Web Gallery of Art]