Happy Easter

Traditional ritual met modern communications last night when we attended the Great Easter Vigil, a service dating from First Century Christians.

And I have to confess that we opted to go to mass last night, which begins by lighting the Paschal Candle from a fire outside and then processes into the church (complete with High Mass incense, torchbearers, a crucifer, that is, a person who displays a cross), rather than going to Easter Mass this morning. Followed by an Easter Egg Hunt, a mix of the traditional and the pagan, not to put too fine a cynical note on it.

The Great Easter Vigil begins outside the building in darkness lit only by a small fire, continues with the lighting of the Paschal Candle as I described, and from there the spreading of the light to each parishioner who carries a candle. The symbolism is obvious and really beautiful.

Inside, the church remains dark, save for the individual tapers. It's pretty, and reminiscent of Midnight Mass at Christmas with the symbolic appearance of the Light of the World. Lectors read the Old Testament passages that describe and predict the coming of Christ - by flashlight, an concession to new technology. In the First and Second Centuries, the participants would have recited the scriptures.

At the resurrection Gospel readings, however, the lights come on, thankfully for those of us with old eyes, and the mass continues in a more ordinary fashion. The priest "purifies" the Gospel with incense, after the thurifer steps into the Sacristy, a room behind the Sanctuary, to add more incense and get the smoke going.

It was at this point that the sublime stumbled into the absurd. Tradition met Modern Communication in the form of a direct line to the Fire Department.

The burning incense rose slowly, and immediately before the sermon, the fire/ smoke alarms started going off with flashing lights and loud sirens. Members of the Vestry rushed to open windows, but it was too late. The congregation erupted into laughter, but that's not so bad. Easter is supposed to be a joyous time. And after reading the Passion last Sunday, we needed a little levity. (I read the part of Jesus, not because of my piety, of course. According to the priest it wasn't my beard, either. She said my name came up in the alphabetical rotation, and I wouldn't stumble over the last words in Hebrew [Aramaic?], when Christ calls, "My God, my god, why hast thou forsaken me?" I don't know that I pronounced the words right, but then neither did anyone else in church last Sunday.)

Soon the fire department arrived. No men (or women, for that matter) rushed down the center aisle of the church clad in yellow fluorescent suits carrying axes because someone rushed out to meet them and asked them not to interrupt our service.

Soon we heard the roar of the fire truck engines as they returned to the station. And the Great Vigil continued.

From the time of the Crucifixion on Good Friday until the Great Vigil on Holy Saturday evening, Christ is not in the world, metaphorically.

But this morning, the Lord is Risen. The Lord is risen indeed.

Happy Easter.


As always, feel free to comment below.