by CCW | 7 April 2012 22:00
The Vigil of Easter is most emphatically “according to thy word,” the word of prophecy and hope, the word of prayer and praise, the word of expectant excitement, and, above all else, the word of renewal and re-creation. The Vigil is all about our waiting upon the divine word, like Mary pondering the words that were spoken about the child Christ. We wait at the grave but we wait expectantly, waiting upon the word which called all things into being and now recalls everything to its truth and principle. It is by all accounts a new creation.
What we await is not about a return to Paradise. There can be no going back. No. What we await is something more, paradise plus, perhaps, for the creation as renewed and restored cannot mean the forgetting of all the folly and wickedness of the human experience, past, present and future. Indeed, the Resurrection presents to us the radical nature of our disobedience in order for us to consider the greater power of divine love. In other words, we await God’s new creative act in a spirit of anticipation, in a mode of holy expectancy. Why and how? Because of God’s word to us. We wait just as Mary waited for her time to come. We are waiting upon God in the knowledge of God that has been revealed to us.
It is not presumption but holy waiting. It is an essentially Marian attitude of faith best captured in her word, “be it unto me according to thy word.” We await expectantly as based on the witness of Scripture and the hope in God that arises from the strength and glory of ancient Israel. We await the great something new that will be wonder and delight, peace and joy abounding unto glory. Our waiting must be like Mary, a waiting that is always “according to thy word.”
Fr. David Curry
Easter Vigil, 2012
Source URL: https://christchurchwindsor.ca/2012/04/07/sermon-for-easter-vigil/
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