Atotlement society went on as before; the same kinds of bitterness and meanness and hatreds went on as befiore. In death on the cross he handed over all tlre meaning of his human life to tlre Fatheç this is his prayer. The Father has not accomplisH his will througþ any success of Jesus; fesus is left witlr nothingbut his love and his obedþnce, and this is the prayer to tlre 9 Father to work through his failure. And, of course, the answer to that prayer is the resurrection, when the Father through the dead but risen Christ does accomplish his loving will The Easter Vigt the mystery of new life for human creatures- Through the risen Christ the Spirit is poured out upon all men, or, to put it another way, the relationship between Jesus Father, tÌrc Father, is extended all men. and the berween the Son and to . because it is only Christian men failed, Beûore his death Jesus had tried, but in the end to bring tlre guard even heathen thinç. Spirit of love to a s¡nall group of disciples; now through him the Fatlrer pours t}le Spirit throughout tlre world; by this the world is to be trans- G. K. Chesterton formed into a community of love, the Kingdom of God. the time of the fulI moon at the Equinox the people of the the f,t þring Christian prayer is never simply the appeal by the creature to extinguish all their heanh-ftres and every lamp and dialogue AMessiani creâtor. The cross and resurrection are the eternal of Father I Llantern and source of light from amonçt them. They gather as the screen history, what it looks like in and Son proþted on to of tlren on the hillside ât midnight and in the darkness a Holy Man strikes If want Trinity looks like be filled with the hisory. you to know that the tlre new ñ¡e from ttre rock of flint and with this a great sacred ffre is Look when reflected Holy Spirit and at the cross. The fünity, in our made to blaze. This new fire from darkness represents, for the Messiani, water, looks strange, history, like something reflected in rippling pretty tlre rebirth of Messia, their dying god, and also the rebirth of the year just as the human being in our history looks strange, being despised and and the coming of new life out of dartness and winter. Erce homo. crucified: An image of the risen god in the form of a tall candle is then lighted dialogue, AII our prayer is some kind of sharing in that eternal the from the fire to symbolise his return to life from the dead" and adorned represented by the cross: this is the only prayer there is. The exchange with cerain sacred sþs by which past and future and all time is made Eucharist is, ofcourse, the principal sacrarnent ofCalvary, but all our to centre on this time and this place. l-d by the flame of the imaç the some human voice of the Son prayer is kind of participation in the of whole throng then moves in procession from the fìre to the place of addressing his is by sharing in this sacrfüial prayer that God Father. lt assembly. As they go they take new flame from the image for their own we enter into our divine life and take our part in the mystery of the torches and lanterns and tlrey dance and shout the praises of Messia'the I shall say more when we to look at the mysteries Trinity. of this come of light of the world'. resurection, the mysteries Easter night. of lr¡/hen the crowd is once more assembled Messia is erected amongst green boughs and flowers and other signs of fertility and a Holy Man addresses it in song bringing this Holy Night to coincide with th€ m¡hic nights of creation and of the birth of the Messiani people, the daylight night of the death and rebirth of God which, for the Messiani, is also the death and rebirth of Man. This is followed by the solemn chanting of the creation m¡hs and other leçnds of the sacred story of the Messiani, always with the theme of darkness and the conquest of darkness by light. Then, while nno Singing Men start an hypnotic chant naming tlre na¡nes of the holy ones of the Messianic past, a greât bath of water is prepared which is to receive power from the Fire and Light so that it will become the l¡Vaters of Life. Those who are to be initiated into the roo lol Ato¡pment The fu¿r hgíl: tfn mlrcry oJ mw l!þ mysteries of the Messiani must pass,h-"gh this water, and, moreover, shadow, but to something very different from the original celebrarion. ali the people are splashed with it, for they believe that this will bring By hindsight I rhink we can now see that if the Vigil was ro rake a hold on them fertility and renewed life during tl,e coming year- people, if it was to form the centre of their consciousness and The climax is reached with the common sacred banquet of the Dying unconscious, to be the central image for them of the meaning of their 'Water and Rising GodÀ4an. Now from Fire and Light and we Pass to existence, it could not afiord to lose its magic. Bread anã Wine consecrated and made holy, for in consuming them This, I would complain, is just what happened in the l97O Roman Missal. Before the restoration, just thùty years ago, the 'Vigil' was a very toçther the Messiani believe that they are lysticall) devouring the very fleih and blood of tl¡e Dying God: their bodies are thus made one with ramshackle afiair ând its meaning was badly obscured by tl* his and share in his new risen life. When this myst€ry has been enactd preposterous practice of celebrating it on Holy Sarurday moming the entire throng, men, women and children, make their way to another instead of at night. But, still, irs strange power lay in its complexity and place for cocoa and buns. above all in tlre way it related the Christian mystery to very deep human things in a úsual and almost tactile way, ro srrange things lurking in the depths of human consciousness. To put ir âs simply as possible: the old I think this could stand as a sample outsider's account of what goes on in Easter Vigil was a very sexy affair, and the modern one looks as if Mrs the averaç suburban Roman Catholic church on Easter night. l,et us Mary Whitehouse has been gqning at ir. The 1956 restoration, which consider what it means. brought th€ ViFl back to its proper place in the middle of the nighÇ Vy'eek as really did retain the riches of the old liturgr. It was, thinh the It is quite natural to see the three great days of Holy tt": *T I greatest in a kind of passion'play, following ttre story of the passion, death and liturgical creation of the modern Church, and founeen years later we resurrection of Christ as three successive events. There is no harm in pretcy well threw it away. Maybe I exaggerare here, but let me give you looking at it this way, but if we look at the history of Holy Week' æ how an example. che htõrgr devebpèd, we may see more deeply into the mystery than In the 1956 restoration' as in the ancient rite, rhe baptismal font is that. seen in essentially sexual terms. tt is seen as the womb of Mother In the first place, the Easter Vigil is not iust Act 3 of a sequence- It is Church fenilised by tlre enrry of the Holy Spirit, and rhis is seen in the the oldesc *as for quite a long time the only celebration of Easter- phallic ûorm of the lighted paschal candle entering the waters. Christ's "nd From the very earliest days we know abouc, the night ofthe resurrection fertilisation of the Virgin Mother Church by bringing her the Holy Spirit was celebrated quite aPart from any comnemoration of Thursday or is compared in this liturgr ro cbe fertilising of the primaeval warers, rhe Friday. The Easter Vigil is complete in itself: it is not iust a happy ending waters of chaos, by the breath of the Spirit, in the reading from tagged on to the mystery of the Last Supper. and the Cross- Genesis I . So the bringing to new birth of bel¡evers in the womb of the ttre tiruryl.at reformers associated with Vatican II, seeing th¡ eivotal- Church is united with the bringing rc binh of rhe universe- In the rite importance of che Vigil, the 'Mother of all Vigits'and the central poìnt of the priest is instructed to lower the lighted candle inro the baptismal thé Church's year, quite rightþ wanæd to make it more available to water in three staggs, penetrating more deeply each time, and each time people. They hoped it would become fior all Chrisdans råe great singing on a higher note: Dellr:endat in honc plenirudinem Jontis vinus tebbration. Now the results, as is well known' have been very Spiritus Sancti. k is quite plain that an impression of mounting excite- disappointing. ln Britain and in lreland this has k" PldJ du9 to ment is meant to be visibly, tactually felt.