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FROM A READING FOR MARCH 30, EASTER VIGIL
'The death He died, He died to sin...but the life He lives, He lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.'- Romans 6:10-11

(Editor's note: This column discusses four of the nine readings proclaimed at the Easter vigil Mass.)

No night of the year is more important for Christians than the Easter vigil. It celebrates something which lies at the heart of our faith: Jesus' dying and rising.

Unlike Christmas, followers of Jesus have always celebrated Easter. As theologian Marcus Borg points out in his well-received book, "Speaking Christian," salvation revolves around more than just getting into heaven. It's rooted in the new life and freedom we experience here and now, when we courageously choose to die with Jesus.

No wonder our Jewish/Christian ancestors in the faith insisted that, especially on the night of the Easter vigil, they again hear the story of Yahweh liberating their ancestors from slavery (Exodus 14:15-15:1). If Yahweh hadn't led this ragtag band of runaway slaves dry-shod through the sea, there would be no Judaism, no salvation history. The plight of these oppressed Hebrews would simply have disappeared into the whirlpool of ancient history.

Exiled, liberated
The earliest followers of Jesus identified with this liberated people. His resurrection paralleled the freedom they'd experienced 1,200 years before.

Like the exiled Israelites Deutero-Isaiah addressed (Isaiah 54:5-14), Jesus' Good Friday disciples also felt abandoned by Yahweh. They were "forsaken and grieved in spirit, afflicted, storm-battered and unconsoled." Yet, like those same exiles, they were eventually established in justice, no longer worrying about oppression or destruction.

The turnabout experienced both by the slaves who followed Moses through the sea and the exiles who believed Deutero-Isaiah's liberating words set the stage for the women who went to Jesus' tomb on the Sunday after His execution (Luke 24:1-12). They weren't expecting to find what lay around the corner.

"Why do you seek the living one among the dead?" the two angels ask. "He is not here, but He has been raised." Instead of anointing a dead body, they now announce a living Jesus.

As encouraging as the other eight readings are, the most important is the passage from Paul's letter to the Romans (Rom 6:3-11). Those participating in the Easter vigil celebration aren't just listening to how God saved God's people in the past; they're commemorating their own salvation right now.

Baptized into Christ
"Are you unaware," Paul asks, "that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were indeed buried with Him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life."

Except in cases of emergency, all Christians were baptized during the Easter vigil. There was no better time to carry out this ritual. And it was always done by immersion, not by having just a few drops of water poured over one's forehead.

The outward sign of this sacrament mirrored the experience of the people who received it. Over a long period of catechumenate, they had died to their own value systems and had made the mentality of Jesus of Nazareth their own. They had joined Jesus' death, a prerequisite for receiving Jesus' life. Like Him, they had been buried, but then instantly received a new life.[[In-content Ad]]

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