Andresius | New organisation of Easter Vigil

A proposal for a new organisation of Easter Vigil

I have been asking myself for some time, why do I perceive the worship of Easter Vigil, even when duly arranged and carefully set, as somehow hesitant, matt and unstrung, especially in its second part. My considerations were turned even to the option of abandoning the idea of a mystery night celebration and quiet abiding of the Easter morning and celebrate the mystery of Christ's resurrection i a calm and dignified way then. It still bears some impact on my meaning and it is even not very far from the arrangement proposed here, which – on the other hand – tried to retain as much of the awesome and tremendous arcanum of the Easter night. Although you may find my suggestions strange, for me they represent a way how to focus the Easter vigil in the very heart of the liturgical year as a true unbroken jewel, a token of Christ's victory over death.

But before making any concrete proposals, we should realise certain implications. Let's look firs, how is today the Easter Vigil celebrated according to catholic rites.

Thanks to the reform of the Prayer book by pope Pius XII is the Easter vigil celebrated again at night, well , in reality more likely in early evening hours and at many places it begins still in full light. Such an early beginning has the practical advantage of accessibility by practically everyone and may provide for a better turnout. Regrettably, it turns against the sense of the Easter vigil and harms it in its most appealing moment at its very beginning, the impact of which can be thus practically annihilated. Moreover, gaining a good turnout – contrary to the normal Sunday service - has never been and should never be goal of celebrating these ancient Christian mysteries. The word mystery has been used here deliberately, as if anywhere Christian phenomena reflect a glimpse of pre-christian mysterious arcana, it is here, in these (and other) night services. It is a dealing, a performance comprising a lot af symbolical acts and where a true hieros logos resounds for the first time that CHRIST HAS RISEN OF THE DEAD!, with symbolical acts and rites, whose sense is veiled to those not initiated into them and even for the other part it is hard to interpret. The worship, in which individuals may participate, changes the substance of human being and of the whole world and fills it with new prospects and expectations.

And what is the basic point of this vigil? That the astounding word of initiation, hieros logos, euangelion must resound together with another ancient symbol of resurrection, at the moment of sunrise. The first thing to consider is thus the time. Missale Romanum defines horam competentem as any time post crepusculum diei, after nightfall. It adds that the beginning of the mass of the Easter Vigil, that is of its part from the reading of Gospel onwards or continuation by Eucharist service should come somewhere circa mediam noctem, i.e. around midnight. (In all my life I have known only one congregation where this is strictly observed.)

While the first part of definition can be accepted without hesitation, I feel that the beginning of the second part of the Vigil must be moved so that it begins at the brim of dawn and reaches its climax at sunrise. That moves to foreground considerations, how long exactly the first part should be – whether it should be really "vsenočnoje bděnije” (overnight vigil) like in the Eastern church, or it should be shorter. Let's attempt at it.

Since the core of the service of the vigil, which comes after the introductory rites, consists of readings and psalmody, it is possible to adjust the length of it to ad hoc time requirements. But I think we can say even more about the moment of beginning of the Easter Vigil. Let's consider first its opening and introductory rites. The service starts with striking a light. The bishop comes in entire darkness to the church door. The church itself, ecclesia Dei, symbol of the church and of the world at whole is entirely empty at that moment, altars gape wide. The "shine of sanctity”, which is in catholic churches represented by consecrated host, isn't abiding there; it has turned into the den of rouges, to the place of wretch and desolation. Church as symbol reaches its anticlimactic, reversed value. It is the abyss of the world, bottomless void, the greedy mouth of the nether world.

(A remark to this: Some ancient rites begin with the arrival of the bishop to the church, where he hits with his rod the door and recites Psalm 23 with a slightly modified verse 7"Attolite portas...(Lift up your heads, O gates!) to elevamini portae infernales, that is "Lift you up, you gates of hell"!He is answered from within: Quis est iste rex gloriae, and this is repeated twice, exactly as in the psalm. After that burst the church door asunder and there is a fire on the threshold. Then everything continues as usual.)

We may thus understand the fire, by which the Easter Vigil begins, as the fire of everlasting dawn fo the universe, or – according the previous paragraph – as the fire of hell. And it is in this fire, where the Easter beacon – Christ descends, who having accepted from the substance this fire, changes it into light and splendour. But let us concentrate on the moment, when maximum darkness is achieved during the Easter night. It must be between sunset and rising of moon, which is at that time somewhere between its full and the third quarter, which means at this time of year that it shows up somewhere before midnight and sets only in full light of day. The moment of absolute darkness - however problematical in cities due to permanent presence of artificial light – occurs already in the first half of night. This would speak for the "long” variant of Easter Vigil, beginning already before midnight. But this question can be considered as secondary in practical aspect – compared to the basic one, which is timing to the moment of Easter morning sunrise, for absolute darkness is in the environment of a modern city practically unattainable.

After hallowing the fire and the beacon, the service continues with the Easter encomium Exsultet and with readings. The beacon, which issues substantive light, should be placed near the ambon, so that no artificial light would be needed during the service. Besides that, also individual Christians have already lit their small candles from the central one, so the church is now full of tiny lights and isn't sunk in total gloom.

And now the longest part of the Easter vigil starts – readings from various texts, which are intetlaced by meditative songs and silence. The texts should be a kind of preliminary exegesis which will later allow for initiation in the mystery of Resurrection.  So they should be texts talking in symbols about man, about his lot and prefigurating the (agony and) rising of Christ. Texts from the Prayer book may be used, bud they won't suffice either in volume or in contents. Therefore I would recommend to enrich the present selection of texts by more Old Testament texts as well as ancient non-biblical texts.[1] Similar could be said about the meditative texts, but there the situation is easier, since biblical psalms offer an ample source for them.

My stress lies with the intention that reading and chanting should be that long, that the Easter Hallelujah and following Gospel pericope should ring out  in the same moment, when the first ray of sun comes through the window on the east. This Hallelujah (prolonged maybe by the charming Easter sequence O filii et filiae) and announcement of Christ resurrection in the astounding passage of the Gospel mean the culmination and central point of the Vigil. Via them, Christ's resurrection is heralded and easer commence. I mean therefore, too,  that in the celebration of the Vigil there is no place for an epistle (since it is only an ex-post interpretation) and for the Gloria chant (which is in its core a Christmas hymn).

Further elements of the Easter vigil which come after the pericope (and homily) are hallowing of water and baptism. Baptism has been interconnected with the Easter vigil so firmly, that its separation from it may not be really feasible, but i might be well to try to appreciate its real value and function in this place. On one side I do understand the tendencies to concentrate all baptisms (esp. of adult ones) in the Easter vigil, on the other I perceive some hazards of it for the rite itself. If I were a catechumen now I would perhaps wish to receive baptism on the occasion of Easter vigil, too, because this feast is a true mystery initiation and being baptised at this point can enhance the living experience. There cannot be seemingly any better nick of time for initiation into Christian life, than this one, in the Easter night. But on the other hand, this can easily move the centre of the whole service out of balance (because of a considerable number of neophytes and length of the baptism rites) and thus outshine the basis purpose, for which the congregation meet – the resurrection of Christ, which is also the beginning and sprout of our own resurrection and regeneration through the Spirit. And we shouldn't forget, too, that baptism was originally practised as a sign for conversion and  repentance, and of the grace which nurtures man and washes clean of his sins. So I am not absolutely positive on the unequivocal bound between baptism and Easter time. A baptism on the – let's say -  fifth Sunday of Lent (in which a symbolism of Lazarus and his rising is also present), after previous lent scrutinies , and maybe with an admonition of the neophytes to refrain from the communication of the Sacrament till the time of their full initiation though Easter rites and Easter vigil, would be more to my likes.

If the union of Easter vigil and baptism is overstressed it implies that Easter is understood principally and solely as the birthday feast of the church – which suspicion can be supported e.g. by the structure and contents of the Easter octave in Roman rites, which moves all around NOT about events at and closely after Easter, but the Baptism and Neophytes. Such a thing cannot be admitted. Despite all esteem and regard, which we bear towards the Church, Christian theology knows relatively clear that Christ's mission and his impact reaches further than only to his Church. His resurrection affects the whole universe and man within it in particular. So if a baptism practised during Easter night should impair the service by an enormous amount of catechumens to that extent that it might be perceived as the main thing and main point of the service, considerations should be made, whether not rather move the baptism to another day; if not before Easter, than to some day within the octave.

A substantial part of the present rites of Easter vigil are the preparatory stages to baptism – the hallowing of water. The rites concerning the hallowing the water show up significant pre-christian connotations (hieros gamos, union of opposites, even astrological relations). We may re-consider, whether just these should be displayed in the moment, where future Christians open wholly to Christ and undergo a ritual initiation, which means for them regeneration and life. All the disputableness of baptism – paradoxically the only sacrament shared by entire Christian world – comes out here, since the Christian baptism is in its core still the Johannine one, which was never practised by Jesus. (According to a minute remark in John 4,2, Jesus himself didn't baptise, but rather preached "the baptism of Spirit” – immersing into Spirit.) If even thus the church uses the symbol of water to insinuate and point at the event of regeneration and rebirth in Spirit (water being more a reference to the preliminary stage of faith), it doesn't behove to draw too much attention to the matter and element of the symbol, nor to its quality or eventual (magic) acts done with it. Just let's try to imagine, how irritating would be such dealings in case of the bread for/of Eucharist.[2] Still, I recommend to preserve the rites for hallowing the water, but at another place and not in connection with baptism, for Easter mystery implies also that level of meaning which betokens renewal of nature in the sense of ancient pre-Christian rituals.

In the end of Easter vigil, which is practically at the beginning of Easter Day, we may devote some place to communion with Christ, which really – according to the witness of the gospels – took place several times during the Easter day. Eucharistic worship should bear itself in spirit of noble simplicity, it should be free of any complicated elements and any din and noise, but on the contrary it should create an aura meditative enough to enable everybody to experience the actuality of Christ's resurrection.

According to the witnesses of the Evangelists, Jesus broke meal with his disciples late in the aftersabbath day. So there should be a service in the evening time commemorating this event. This leads me to a conclusion that that the morning Eucharist celebrated for closing the Easter vigil should  be enacted in the simplest way as possible, and never should take place already in night time or even in the evening, when Jesus' body lies still in the grave. We should remind us of Jesus' words: I tell you I shall not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom." (Matt 26:29) We should not hasten the mysterious transformation, which is taking place in deep silence without any endeavour of ours, we should not like to precipitate and tear away the veil of the cosmic mystery as we do not pull budding sprouts out of the earth.

I see however possibility of an extra action in which a procession lead by  a priest with the blazing Easter beacon would exit the church and come down to the nearest well. Acolytes would clean the well from fallen leaves or other filth and the priest would sink into it the Easter beacon as a sign for renovation of all nature by virtue of Christ's resurrection.

The ceremony can be staged as follows: After conclusion of the Ester vigil worship a procession should leave the church in due order: acolytes first , then the priest or bishop only in white undergarment without any ornaments; behind him the deacon with glowing Easter beacon. At the site the priest kneels down as on Good Friday, and kisses again the Earth and remains in touch with it for a while. And even as on Good Friday, also now everything goes on in silence. We may however expect that the silence will be soon broken by a voice of an awakened bird, but even if he kept silence, it will be broken by voices of humans tuning one of ancient Easter anthems  - e.g. the sequence Victimae paschali or one of its ancient variants which exist practically in all languages of Europe. In the meanwhile Acolytes have vested the priest in rich golden vestment. The priest rises and blesses the four world quarters. Now he descends to the purified spring or well and sinks the Easter beacon into it. Acolytes fetch water and carry it to church for the use of it and the procession goes back singing, or even accompanied by bells tolling.

To the procession back to church I may have a mall remark. Part of the old rites applied for hallowing the water were litanies to Saints. They were later reduced, because they do not have any immediate relation to the main core of the service. I deem still that they may be preserved in this form or that. The procession leading back to church might be a good place for them, since in this very moment through the resurrection of Christ heaven is opened anew and a new communication with all the crowds of saint may be attained. Pronouncing the names of Saints in this place and moment we acknowledge them to be what they really are – the witnesses to Christ, to his death and resurrection, although they may not have been His disciples when he lived on the Earth and sacrificed himself on the hill of Golgatha. The list of Saints is of course subject to no denominational authority, as the Saints are not. Singing the litanies to Saints is therefore one option for the backward procession, but only one option; there are hundreds of other beautiful and dignified Easter songs and anthems, which may tear in the Easter morning here.

Later, in the afternoon or in the evening I recommend to hold a service in commemoration of Lord's first apparition to the disciples in Emmaus and in Jerusalem. But the highly elated and roused spirit does not abate and remains for the whole octave, during which we commemorate further and further apparitions of the Lord to the disciples and their gradual understanding of the mystery of Christ's resurrection, meaning a mighty well of regeneration and revival for them. The Easter week somehow leads us at once, step by step back to the world, which however appears to us wholly changed and irradiated. Why, it is now two weeks since the time, when we last were lead to the nature and natural word (on Palm Sunday) and in the meanwhile we have been occupied by completely other thoughts and concerns, and Spring must have advanced considerably in these two weeks. So we may even the nature see mirroring glimpse of that what we have experienced as spiritual initiation.