Breath of the Spirit

March 27, 2005:  EASTER SUNDAY

Alleluia. Christ is risen!  The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia! 

The vigil of Easter is the most important liturgy of the Church.  It is the climax of the entire liturgical year and it reflects the dramatic high point of all of salvation history – the resurrection of Christ Jesus from the dead!  Everything old and done is now renewed and made vibrant in the light of the crucified One being raised to new life.

I am a liturgical “purest” (some might say “snob”) and I cannot imagine why anyone would want to celebrate the great vigil with out all of the seven readings from the Hebrew scriptures assigned in the Lectionary with all of their sung responses and collects.  Each of them recounts an episode in the epic adventure of the history of God’s chosen people.  We celebrate their story – their triumphs and tests, the establishment and fulfillment of the covenants and promises that God gave to them.

Salvation history climaxes in an unexpected way – the life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus.  Some regarded him as an ordinary person, others a trouble-maker or revolutionary, still others a mad man.  Yet a few knew him as extra-ordinary, a healer, a worker of wonders, the Messiah, the Christ, God’s own beloved son.  We know the story of his last days well, we celebrated it in ritual and sacrament this past week – Jesus was rejected, cursed, beaten, killed, and buried among the wicked.

But his power and purpose didn't end there.  He rose from the dead!  In this miraculous event everything is changed, everything is new.  Sin and death are conquered for ever!  Indeed we sing “O happy fault, O necessary sin of Adam that gained for us so great a redeemer…”  Nothing is the same – all is to be seen in the light of Christ.

It is a powerful story – It is a great reality.  It must inspire us.  We must renew our lives.  We are called to celebrate salvation history and find in our world and selves the places that are still un-enlightened.  We pray this night that all the places of darkness – of sin, greed, corruption, violence, hatred, prejudice, rejection, fear, poverty, oppression – all that is evil – will be renewed and enlightened by Christ.

It is time to re-read salvation history in the light of our own experiences as GLBT People.  We must be inspired to find moments of adventure, triumph, and hope in our own story. 

Last month at the Notre Dame Queer Film festival, three of the featured documentaries told stories which might be considered:  Gay Pioneers tells us about the brave men and women who organized the first gay civil rights demonstrations in the US from 1965 to 1969, In Good Conscience documents the struggle of Sr. Jeannine Grammick with the authorities in Rome and her decision to refuse to be silenced and discontinue her ministry to GLBT Catholics, and a brief television feature with the story of Brendan Fay and Thomas Moulton’s New York gay wedding. 

This praxis of relating the past to the present with a vision of how to shape the future may be what some have called “critical memory.”  The East Vigil calls us to remember our stories.  We must know where we have come from and to look toward the future.  We must see by the light of Christ which radically transforms and gives new and everlasting life.  Amen. Alleluia! 

J. Montoya