I am going to start off by stating the obvious. I LOVE EASTER! I mean, don’t get me wrong, Christmas is OK too. But Easter? I mean it is not about gifts and there is little secular influence. Yeah, I know about the Easter Bunny and all. But that little buck tooth, one step above a rat, varmint cannot hold a candle to the Son of God rising from the dead. I mean, come on. With the price of eggs he has had to cut back on the whole hide them from the kids routine. Easter is solidly about Christ.
Plus, we have HOLY WEEK!! A story for the ages. Christ rides into town on a donkey in triumph on Palm Sunday, has a feast with his friends while initiating the priesthood and the Eucharist on Holy Thursday. Plus that mass at night is filled with the symbolism of Christ’s service by washing the disciples feet. And establishes the priest as someone In Persona Christi. Some leave that service and visit adoration chapels in the area with the tradition of visiting seven churches. Then Good Friday. Why is it Good? Because without Friday, there can be no Sunday. It is a solemn day for sure. So solemn that it is the only day of the Church’s liturgical year where Mass in not celebrated. Keeping the focus on Christ’s death. While the stations of the cross are typically celebrated every Friday of Lent in most churches, Good Friday’s observance is the most special with some churches doing a Living Version or a dramatic play on that day.
Now many of you will assume we move from Good Friday to Easter Sunday. If you are in that camp, you are missing one of the most beautiful celebrations of the church year. The Easter Vigil. Vigil. Sounds a bit ominous doesn’t it? In the early days of the church, and in some parishes today, congregations begin the vigil late Saturday night and remain up until Sunday morning at dawn. Recreating Mary Magdalene and Jesus’ Mother finding the empty tomb and celebrating the Resurrection. But most parishes begin the Vigil around 8 PM and finish up near 11. The service often begins outside with the lighting of the Easter Candle via a bonfire. We have had some really big ones before at Corpus Christi in Carol Stream. What else are pallets for, anyway!!?
Congregants then light individual candles and process behind the Easter Candle into a darkened church. After the readings, and before the Gospel, the lights come on and the atmosphere changes from quiet solitude to rejoicing. The Gloria and Alleluia are sung again. And it is at the Easter Vigil that the elect are accepted into the Church after a year of preparation. Catechumens (those receiving Baptism, Communion and Confirmation) and Candidates (those needing to enter full communion by receiving the Eucharist and Confirmation).
But the real highlight, at least for me, of the Easter Vigil is The Exultet. It is a emotion driven chant that occurs after the initial procession of the Easter Candle. It is sung A Capella, often by a deacon. It is essentially our salvation story from Adam to Christ. At Corpus Christi it is sung by our Deacon, Tom. Every year I tell him that it is not Easter until he sings the Exultet. We hear about Adam’s sin, the Israelites fleeing Egypt and Moses dividing the Red Sea to save them from the Egyptian Army. That God gave His son so that we, slaves to sin, could live by the one final sacrifice of the Lamb. The final Passover. That Christ broke the bars of death’s prison when he died and retrieved those trapped in Sheol waiting their redemption.
But the line from the Exultet that has always confused me was this one:
O truly necessary sin of Adam,
destroyed completely by the Death of Christ!
O happy fault that earned so great, so glorious a Redeemer!
What? Necessary Sin?! The sin of Adam?! Oh Happy Fault?! I mean this was THE FALL. The event that doomed us all to the stain of Original Sin. Why we need Baptism. But I was focusing on the sin and fault part. What I was missing is the Redeemer part. Christ did not just wipe away sin with one final sacrifice. He gave us a glimpse of the Father. He gave us a glimpse of Heaven. He took us on as His brothers. He was and is much more than Adam’s eraser. He is our model. Our Redeemer and our friend. He is the person we turn to when the world is crashing down around us. When friends and family betray us or cancel us. He is what fills the God shaped hole that we try to fill with Honor, Power, Pleasure and Wealth. Yes, Adam’s sin was necessary for by that sin God gave us His Son. Oh Happy Fault Indeed! Thanks Tom for reminding us every year. Can’t wait until tonight.
