Christ yesterday, today, beginning, and
the end. His are the times and the ages alleluia.
On the earth we live as part of the church
militant. We cannot wage a war without weaponry or an objective. The weapon is
Christ alive in the most perfect unity between us. The objective is, “So that
we may all be one.” (Chiara Lubich)
I am so great full that the mother church
has embraced us with the feast of Easter vigil mass. In accord with the ancient
tradition, this night is one of vigil for the Lord, when he brought the
Israelites out of the land of Egypt. So on this night all Israelites must keep
the vigil for the lord through generations (Ex .12:42) “Blessed are those
servants whose master find vigilant on his arrival. (Lk, 12:35). This is a
reminder for the faithful to have their lumps burning ready, to be like men
awaiting their master’s return so that when he alives he will find them wide
awake and seat with them at his table.
The night vigil is arranged in four parts
which include, service of light, liturgy of the word that the church meditates
on all the wonderful beauty of creation God has put on earth from the
beginning. We also have the liturgy of baptism. The resurrected Lord is the
sign for the members of the church to be reborn in baptism. All Christians
renew their baptismal promises. The last part is the liturgy of the Eucharist;
the entire church is invited to the banquet of the Lord as the witnesses of the
paschal mystery. The celebration of the Eater vigil starts at night. According
to the church tradition, it should not begin before the night falls and should
end before the day break on Sunday (Roman missal)
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As Lavigerie community in Jinja, this is
how we celebrated our Easter vigil. We started our mass late in the evening
with the preparation and blessing of a conflagration that was set a distance
from the chapel. The Easter candle was blessed along with other candles. We
started our procession to the recreation room where the Exsultet was recited.
We had the first reading which was accompanied by the power point making us
feel the reality of creation. We continued with the procession with the
accompaniment of more readings from (Gen, 22:1-18), (Ex, 14:15-15:1), (Is,
54:5-14), (Bar, 3:9-15, 32:4:4). After the last reading from the Old Testament
with the responsorial prayer, we entered chapel. The lights and alter candles
were lit, and Father Gaetan who was the main celebrant intoned the Gloria that
was taken up by the whole congregation. The last two readings were taken from
the New Testament one from the book of Romans (6:3-11) and the gospel, “why
look among the dead for someone who is alive.”(Mark 16:1-8)
The main celebrant’s homily was so moving
that it left Christians in a thick smoke confusion to reflect more about their
relationship with the risen Christ. He posed a question that, “Why are
you a Christian?” Many answers were presented from Christians; these
are some of the answers which were presented. One said I am a Christian because
Jesus suffered, died and resurrected because of my sins. Another Christian
responded that I want to be a disciple of Christ. In his homily, the preacher
challenged the congregation saying that most of us are not strong in our
journey of faith. “Where do you draw water when your well gets dry?” He
called upon the entire community to always dig deep and surrender our lives to
God when our wells get dry. The main celebrant had prepared letters to
the entire Christians, the later I received said, "Hello Collines, am
happy again to talk to you, you are my beloved, I trust in you. I came so that
you may have life and life to the fullness. You are the light of the world,
don’t be afraid to shine. Shine my compassion. Remember, you are precious to
me. Yours, Jesus." The Easter vigil it is a reminder of the final victory of life over death; it also reminds us that we are the beloved, that we are called to have life to the fulness, that we are invited to be the light of the world. In order to experience the victory of Easter we need to befriend a journey of rejection, suffering and death as Jesus did, for any
Christian who is serious about following Christ must be prepared to walk the
same path with the risen Lord.
The mass finally ended sound and all
Christian communities were invited for the simple meal which was prepared for
us all as the sign of the togetherness to celebrate the joy of the risen Lord.
Later all visitors departed. It’s my prayer that the good Lord protects us from
all evil and continues blessing our renewed baptism promises.
Kananura Collines