Sunday, 12 April 2020

CHRIST THE LIGHT ILLUMINATES THE FOUR NIGHTS

20200412 CHRIST THE LIGHT ILLUMINATES THE FOUR NIGHTS


11-12 April, 2020, Easter Vigil/Easter Sunday
CHRIST THE LIGHT ILLUMINATES THE FOUR NIGHTS

The gospel for Easter Vigil, and in fact the entire Easter Week, makes reference to the Empty Tomb.  We read of the amazement of the apostles and disciples of Jesus when they found, or heard the story of the empty Tomb.  Mary Magdalene, on discovering that the tomb was empty, was distraught because she thought that someone had stolen the body of Jesus.  “Peter, however, went running to the tomb. He bent down and saw the binding cloths but nothing else; he then went back home, amazed at what had happened.”  Why was the Tomb empty?  Who rolled the stone away?  These are questions that they could not readily find an answer.
In many ways too, we are also in the Empty Tomb.  We cannot make sense of what is happening in the world today as a consequence of Covid-19.  Our lives appear to be empty.  There is no fun, no celebration, no excitement and no friends around us.  The offices are empty.  The streets are empty.  The malls are empty.  The bars and disco-clubs are empty.  The parlours in the red light district are seeing red in their bank accounts!  The hotels are empty.  The planes are empty.  The churches are not only empty but even our religious services are emptied of the rich liturgical symbols and celebrations.  For some of us, our pockets are also empty, and we need the government to top them up!
So what do we do?  Are we going to be like Mary Magdalene, crying and lamenting how life could be like this?  She was weeping and complaining that someone had taken the body of her Lord away.  Or are we going to be like the disciples at Emmaus, unsettled and disturbed by what they saw and heard?  Some of us who are like them, despondent, angry, resentful and even losing faith in God’s mercy and love, may ask: “Why does God allow such a pandemic to happen, causing the entire world to suffer?” Our economies are wrecked, we have lost our jobs, and so many people have been infected and tens of thousands killed.  Where is God in all this?  We are fed up, locked in at home and unable to go out as we like.  We are lonely, because we are forced to face people we can’t get along with.  We want to be with our friends and those we love.  We want our Masses back, and gather to worship, pray and work with our community.
Today, the Church invites us to rejoice.  “Exult, let them exult, the hosts of heaven, exult, let Angel ministers of God exult, let the trumpet of salvation sound aloud our mighty King’s triumph! Be glad, let earth be glad, as glory floods her, ablaze with light from her eternal King, let all corners of the earth be glad, knowing an end to gloom and darkness.”  But what is there to rejoice when we are stuck in our homes?  What is there to rejoice when we are under bondage in our homes?  What is there to rejoice when there is no life in us, when we are like dead men and women?
We have reasons to exult because Christ is our Light in darkness, especially during this difficult period of Covid-19 pandemic.  That is why we light the Easter Candle for all to see and for Him to shine through the darkness of the night.  He shines in our lives and makes darkness as clear as the day.   He is that morning star that never sets.  Indeed, as the first reading from the book of Genesis declares, “Let there be light!”  God is Light, Truth and Life.  The resurrection of Jesus lights up the tomb we live in.  He is the true light that will lead us into fullness of life.  Not even the tomb can imprison us, just as it could not confine our Lord.  As the resurrected Lord, He walked through doors, consoles us that He is alive and with us, as He told Mary Magdalene.  He opened hardened and closed hearts like Thomas, giving hope to downhearted people like the disciples at Emmaus, peace and joy to the disciples who hiding behind closed doors in fear when He appeared to them, transforming chaos into cosmos.
How is this happening today?  Like in the days of old, as in the Exsultet that we sang, there are four nights that the Light of Christ brings to humanity.  Did you take note that four times, in the Exsultet, we prayed, “This is the night …”
The first night is deliverance from slavery.  “This is the night when once you led our forebears, Israel’s children, from slavery in Egypt and made them pass dry-shod through the Red Sea.”  God saved the Israelites from their misery by freeing them from the bondage of the Egyptians as we read in the book of Exodus.  Christ as the New Moses frees us today as well, from all bondages, physical and spiritual, that enslave us.  Many of us feel stifled and imprisoned in our homes because we cannot go out.  Just consider how the cloistered religious live in their monasteries without going out!  The real bondage is never a physical bondage.  It is our spiritual bondage because we want things our way.  We want to do what we like.  Most of us are in bondage to the seven capital sins of pride, envy, anger, sloth, gluttony, lust and greed.  The world wants to be free, not for true happiness but to sin, and sin more!  Real slavery is when we cannot control our desires and when we are addicted to sex, gambling, drinking, cheating, pornography, anger and laziness.  Those who live in sin, live in guilt or are numb to sin but are rotting in their hearts.
The second night that God wants to bring light to is the darkness of sin.  “This is the night that with a pillar of fire banished the darkness of sin.”  Darkness is always associated with sin.  When Judas took the bread from Jesus and went out to betray Him, St John wrote, “It was dark!”  All sins are committed in the dark.  No one commits sin openly.   We hide our sins from others because we know they are wrong and shameful.  This is why there are many people in the world seeking to normalize sin and evil so that they no longer have to sin in the dark.  But Jesus tells us not to be fooled by the world’s propaganda of false freedom and fake love.  The freedom the world is offering is really another form of addiction and slavery to self.  The love the world is offering is nothing but lust and sensual pleasures, a perverted love of self, not of the other person.  Christ the Light comes to enlighten us on the deceitfulness of sin. 
The third night is the night of grace, of new life in Christ.   “This is the night that even now, throughout the world, sets Christian believers apart from worldly vices and from the gloom of sin, leading them to grace and joining them to his holy ones.”    We can be set free from the vices and gloom of sin only through the grace of the Holy Spirit given to us at our baptism.  St Paul said, “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. For if we have grown into union with him through a death like his, we shall also be united with him in the resurrection. We know that our old self was crucified with him, so that our sinful body might be done away with, that we might no longer be in slavery to sin.”  Truly, if we have died with Christ to our selfishness and self-centeredness, the lack of forgiveness and charity in our hearts, we too will enjoy the grace of a true freedom for love and for life.
Finally, the fourth night is the most glorious night of resurrection.  “This is the night, when Christ broke the prison-bars of death and rose victorious from the underworld.”  Christ has indeed shown us that death is not the last word, neither hatred but life and love.  Not even the underworld can hold our Lord in the grave, so, too, not even this Pandemic can triumph over us by making us lose faith in Him or to give up our faith, or to give up hope even though we have been so deprived of what we are used to having and doing.  But this Covid-19 has shown how resilient we can be when we have faith in Jesus.  He shows us new ways to evangelize, to remain in contact with our brothers and sisters in the faith, praying together using the means of modern technology, having on-line Masses, preaching and sharing the Word of God, having our CatholicSG Radio to broadcast hymns, talks and interviews.   Regardless of the constraints, we are reaching out to more people than those who come for Mass!  We have been forced to find creative and new ways to proclaim Jesus.  We too can use the time at home to bond with our family, praying and worshipping together, having family meals and recreating together.   When we live like this, we have a foretaste of the resurrected life!
So my dear brothers and sisters, we can indeed rejoice and sing Alleluia!  He is alive.  He is not dead.  He is with us.  He is present in our trials and temptations.  He has risen in our hearts if you allow Him.   So like the Church that says, “O truly necessary sin of Adam, destroyed completely by the Death of Christ!  O happy fault that earned so great, so glorious a Redeemer!” we too must say “O necessary Covid-19, if not for this virus, our lives would not have been changed, our faith would not have been challenged, our values would not have found reorientation, our family would not have been closer.  Now we recognize our finiteness, the importance of solidarity in love and charity because we are all one humanity, and most of all, that even in death, there is life forever.” So we must sing Alleluia! even at this time.   Alleluia!

Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved


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