Pope ushers in Easter with Vigil Mass

(April 24, 2011) Pope Benedict XVI ushered in Easter season with a vigil Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica Saturday night, commemorating the triumphant resurrection of Christ from death. The German-born pontiff, marking the 6th Easter season of his pontificate, began the service in the atrium of a darkened St Peter's Basilica where he blessed the fire and engraved the Greek letters Alpha and Omega on a large candle. The candle symbolizes Christ, and the Greek letters meaning He is the beginning and end of everything. As the candle was carried into the darkened basilica, a chant of “Light of Christ” echoed all around. The church became a sea of flickering flames as thousands of faithful inside lit candles before the lights were turned on in a ritual symbolising the darkness in the world after Christ's death and the light of the resurrection. The lights were then switched on and the Mass began, led by Pope Benedict, dressed in gold-and-white coloured vestments.
In his homily Pope Benedict explained how the Eucharistic celebration, Sunday and Christ’s Resurrection are innately linked with the Old Testament narration of the creation of which man is not a random product of evolution. The Pope began with the ‘two eloquent signs’ of fire at the start of the Easter Vigil Mass saying fire becomes light and water becomes the image of the sacrament of baptism through which we become sharers in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
With ample scripture readings from the Old as well as the New Testaments during the Vigil Mass, ‘the Church wishes to offer us a panoramic view of whole trajectory of salvation history,’ leading us towards Christ, the true Light. The Pope argued that the narration of creation in the Book of Genesis is an essential part of our profession of faith that asserts, “We believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth”. The story of creation asserts man’s true beginning and end. Hence, to omit the creation would be to misunderstand the very history of God with men. The Church thus brings man into contact with God, the source of all things. Life in the Church’s faith involves more than a set of feelings and sentiments and perhaps moral obligations. It embraces man in his entirety, from his origins to his eternal destiny. The Pope said only because creation belongs to God can we place ourselves completely in his hands. And only because He is the Creator can He give us life for ever.
Pope Benedict then drew attention to the introduction of St. John’s Gospel, which he said sums up the essential meaning of the creation account in a single statement: “In the beginning was the Word”. The Greek word “Logos” means “reason”, “sense”, “word”. Rather than ‘irrationality, lack of freedom and pure chance the origin of everything,” it is reason, freedom and love at the origin of being,” the Pope argued. If man were merely a random product of evolution in some place on the margins of the universe, then his life would make no sense or might even be a chance of nature. This creative, divine Reason that is there at the beginning, the Pope pointed our, also created freedom; and because freedom can be abused, there also exist forces harmful to creation. Despite this, creation itself remains good, life remains good, because at the beginning is good Reason, God’s creative love. Hence the world can be saved.
Pope Benedict then went on to explain how the Old Testament account of creation structured the framework of the week leading up to the Sabbath, the seventh and last day in which creation finds its completion. Thus the Sabbath was an expression of the Covenant between God and man and creation. But with Easter and the paschal experience of Christians, the structure of the week is overturned. The Sabbath, the last day day, gave way to Sunday, the day of the liturgical assembly, the day for encounter with God. Jesus as the Risen Lord encountered his followers on the first day, Sunday, after they had found the tomb empty. This encounter, the Pope said, happens afresh at every celebration of the Eucharist. We celebrate the first day because now, thanks to the risen Lord, it is definitively established that reason is stronger than unreason, truth stronger than lies, love stronger than death.
After his Easter Vigil homily, Pope Benedict received six adult converts from various countries into the Catholic Church, administering them the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and First Holy Communion. The new Catholics were from China, Singapore, Switzerland, Albania, Russia and Peru.