This Is The Day

Previous Pope

Pope John Paul II, who died a few days after Easter last year, on April 2, 2005, liked to quote a 17th century Polish hymn whenever he would speak on the solemnity of our Lord's resurrection: "Today has come the happy day, awaited by each of us. This day Christ has risen. Alleluia." John Paul II often centered his liturgical Easter homilies around the theme of Psalm 118 (117:24): "This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad."

For instance, he said, "Who could unite earth to heaven once more and man to his Creator? The answer to this unsettling question comes to us from Christ, Who, breaking the chains of death, made His heavenly light shine upon men. This is why on Easter morning we can cry out to the world-This is the day. It is a new day. Christ has entered human history and changed its course. It is the mystery of the new creation of which the liturgy of these days has made us astounded witnesses. By His sacrifice on the cross Christ has annulled the condemnation of the ancient sin and brought believers close to the Father's love once more. Accepting death, Christ conquered death. His victory is the day of our redemption."

This reality especially comes clearly to us, said Pope John Paul II, in our annual participation in the Easter Vigil, the holiest and most important night of the year. He said, "The stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone (Psalm 117:2). This is the work of the Lord and it is marvelous in our eyes (Psalm 117:23). It happened on this holy night. The women recognized it, when, after the Sabbath, "while it was still dark" (John 20:1), they went to the tomb to anoint the Body of the Lord and found the tomb empty. Then they heard the angel's voice: Do not be afraid. You are looking for Jesus Who was crucified. He is not here. He is risen! (Matthew 28:5-6)."

Present Pope

Speaking about the great Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday night, Pope Benedict XVI, said, "In this holy night, the Church attempts to tell us in her own language, the language of symbols, the meaning of the resurrection, the mystery celebrated in the Easter Vigil. Three great symbols dominate this night of the resurrection: light, water, and the new song, that is, Alleluia. As we await in the night-darkened church for the Easter candle to be lighted, we should experience a kind of consolation from the knowledge that God knows how dark this night is. In fact, He has already struck His light in the middle of it. Christ our Light. Thanks be to God. The night enables us to realize what light really is. It is brightness, warmth, life. It is a glimpse of the great eschatological feast of light, an anticipation of God's wedding feast."

The Holy Father goes on to say, "The second Easter symbol is the water with which the light is, as it were, wedded in the immersion of the Easter candle. The water symbolizes all that is precious on earth. The whole mystery of water is present in the Easter celebration, enclosed in it, yet, at the same time, raised to a higher level without losing any of its original state. For the Easter Vigil tells us that a far more precious stream than ever existed on earth has issued from the pierced side of Jesus (John 4:10; 7:37; 19:39). In Baptism this water flows from the cross of Christ through the whole Church as a mighty stream that 'makes glad the city of God' (Psalm 46:4). We bathe in the stream and are reborn."

Third Symbol

The Bishop of Rome then says, "The third Easter symbol is the new song, the Alleluia. Granted we shall not sing this new song in its fullness until we are in the new world and God calls us by a new name (Revelation 2:17), that is, until everything is made new. But, we are permitted to anticipate something of this newness in the great joy of the Easter Vigil. For singing, especially the singing of the new song, is ultimately an outward expression of joy. When we say that the blessed in heaven are singing, we are using an image to express the joy that permeates their whole being. For singing symbolizes the fact that an individual has left behind the boundaries of what is merely rational and has arrived at a kind of ecstasy. For he would have no need to sing to express what is merely rational. The Alleluia is just the non-verbal expression of a joy that no longer needs words because it transcends all words."

The Sovereign Pontiff observes, "The resurrection of Jesus means that God holds power over history, that He has not abandoned it to the laws of nature. It means that He has not become impotent and that the universal law of death is, nevertheless, not the ultimate power in the world. On the contrary, it is He Who is also the 'omega' Who is the 'alpha' of history. All this makes clear what Easter means. God has acted. History does not go on aimlessly. Justice, love, and truth are realities, genuine realities. God loves us and He comes to meet us."

Paul's Credo

In commenting on what he calls Saint Paul's Easter Credo (1 Corinthians 15:3-11) and on the proof-text about the resurrection, used by the Catholic Church from the earliest days (Psalm 16:10), the Holy Father says, "Anyone professing the resurrection of the body is not affirming an absurd miracle, but affirming the power of God, Who respects His creation without being tied to the law of its death. Indubitably death is the typical form of things in the world as it actually exists. But the overcoming of death, its real not simply its conceptual elimination, is still today, as it was then, the object and desire of the human quest. The resurrection of Jesus says that this victory is in effect possible, that death does not belong principally and irrevocably to the structure of the creature, to matter. This comes about through the creative power of the word and of love. Only these powers are sufficiently strong to modify so fundamentally the structure of matter, to make it possible to overcome the barrier of death."

"Faith in the resurrection is concerned with the real power of God and it knows that the power of God is hope and joy. This is the liberation revealed at Easter. In the Christian Passover, God reveals Himself, His power, superior to the power of death, the power of the Trinity. So the paschal revelation gives us the right to sing Alleluia even in a world overcast with the cloud of death."

Happy Easter, dear readers, to you and your loved ones!

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