Easter Vigil- Signs and Symbols

Last week we looked at the symbol of light as that is used in the celebration of the Easter Vigil which concerns particularly the first part of the celebration.

The next part of the Vigil is the Liturgy of the Word which is longer than usual. The Word of God is crucial to faith in Christ and in these readings we have God giving origin to his creation through his word in the first reading and then gradually leading his people towards Christ by the word which is expressed in Moses and then the prophets. God’s word being spoken in the words of human beings develops throughout the Old Testament and comes to its full expression in Jesus who is the word of God in his very flesh and blood, in his life and in his death and resurrection. So the celebration of the word culminates in the proclamation of Christ’s resurrection in the Gospel.

Then the Liturgy shifts to the symbol of water. Where there is water, there is life. Where there is water, human beings can continue to exist, without it we are threatened by death. And so we use this element as another means of speaking about Christ’s death and resurrection in which we find that life wins out over death. We bless water, remembering all the ways in which it has been part of the ways of God with human beings. We are sprinkled with this newly blessed water as a sign of our coming to life in Christ.

When we get to the Eucharist, we are back on more familiar territory. It is the culmination of the Vigil. It is our participation in the life the risen Lord gives us. It is our means of being embodied with Christ, of becoming the body of Christ. One of the sayings that comes up in the course of our tradition of faith is that Christ raises up a body for himself by uniting us with him in the Church. And this is the reason for our having baptisms at the Vigil – when it is possible – because those new members of the body are the signs of Christ continuing to raise up a body for himself.

By Frank O’Loughlin