Collect for Easter Sunday
Happy Easter! This week we Lectio the Liturgy with the Collect for Easter Sunday Mass during the Day.
O God, who on this day, through your Only Begotten Son, have conquered death and unlocked for us the path to eternity, grant, we pray, that we who keep the solemnity of the Lord’s Resurrection may, through the renewal brought by your Spirit, rise up in the light of life. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
Easter Vigil is my favorite liturgy of all time. I love how the church is dark when the mass starts. It’s just like the disciples of Jesus the night before the Resurrection. They were in the dark, probably unaware that the next morning would change the world for all time.
On this night, we hear the Proclamation of Easter, or the Exsultet. In it we hear how the Vigil of Easter is the night that the doors to slavery were opened. This is the night that the Israelites were set free from slavery in Egypt. This is the night that sets Christians apart from worldly vices. This is the night when Christ broke the prison-bars of death.
While the Easter Exsultet tells us about the doors that were opened to free us from slavery, the Collect tells us that Jesus opened for us the doors to eternity, and you know what? They are the same doors.
The doors that were closed and locked shut when Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden, also known as Paradise, or the Garden of God. Humankind could no longer be in paradise, or the company of God. It was no little offense, it was a serious penalty, but humankind was given a promise. Historians estimate it was 4,000 years between Adam and Eve and Jesus, and all people had to cling to was that promise from God: He would send a Savior and when that Savior rose from the dead, the doors were opened again.
In the prayer we ask that we, who keep the solemnity of the Resurrection, may rise up in the light of life through the renewal of the Holy Spirit.
Easter Sunday is our God-given opportunity to remember that we are Resurrection people. “The people in darkness have seen a great light,” (Isaiah 9:2) and those people are us.
Once we find this light, how do we keep it? We follow. In John 8:12 we read, “Jesus spoke to them again, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’”
Vine’s Expository Dictionary defines the light in John 8:12 as the Lord as the illuminator of men. In the Nicene Creed we proclaim that we “believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life.”
Our light not only comes from, but it is illumined through our renewal in the Holy Spirit. Lent seems like it was pretty focused on Jesus, but when it comes to Easter morning, it’s about the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul tells us (and the Romans), “If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit that dwells in you. (Rom 8:11)
What does that mean for us? Jesus wasn’t just brought back to life, He was resurrected into a new life. When we let the Spirit bring us to new life, the same thing happens. We walk in the light of life as new creatures, commissioned and fully equipped to do what Jesus did: go, and make disciples, baptize, teach (Matt 28:19-20a) and to bring glad tidings to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.” (Luke 4:18-19)
If that sounds like a lot, just remember that the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead already dwells in you!
Thanks for praying with me,
Julie