(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.