Tonight’s solemn liturgy begins with the priest carving the number 2021 into the wax of the Paschal candle as he declares: “Christ yesterday and today, the beginning and the end. . .” The acolytes will then kindle the Easter fire, a symbol of Christ’s victory over the darkness of sin and death. In his dying and rising celebrated this night, we will acclaim him as the Lord of the Eternal Sabbath.
The Lord’s journey to Jerusalem over two-thousand years ago, was the fulfillment of his Father’s will for him and for us. His passage from death to life, is the very embodiment of a love which is stronger than our anxiety and fear and mightier than the burden of our guilt and regret. As the Prophet Isaiah reminds us during the Advent season, “The people who walked in darknesshave seen a great light;upon those who lived in a land of glooma light has shone.” We are those people and Christ is our light.
Just a few weeks ago, we observed a year’s anniversary when “sheltering in place” became the new norm as the pandemic spread with increasing speed and alarming deadliness. Many would say this has been the longest Lent on record. This passage of time has been marked by the death of over half a million loved ones in our country and of untold millions of others who continue to suffer, die and mourn throughout the world. We have given up too much this year but we cannot give up hope.
Christian hope is renewed tonight withthe warmth and radiance of the Lord’s victory won for his people. It is in his light that our life is now possible; it is with his light that we can move forward with promise.