by CCW | 4 April 2026 20:00
The quiet silence of Holy Saturday morning gives place to the Alleluias of great rejoicing on the Eve of Easter. “This is the night, wherein heaven and earth are joined, and mankind partaketh with the Godhead,” as the Paschal Praeconium sings. We rejoice in the making known of what is hidden in the Passion, simply the life and love of God who renews and restores our broken and sinful humanity. We rejoice in the felix culpa, the blessed fault of the original sin of Adam and Eve which belongs to all the sins of our humanity and yet a blessing because it does not cancel God’s deeper will and purpose for our humanity, namely, our being partakers of his divinity. It does not mean the loss of our humanity but rather its true being as found in the all-embracing love of God who alone makes something not just out of nothing but out of the nothing of our sin and evil.
The signal note is one of joy and praise at God’s restoring the dignity of our humanity to its purpose as found in his will. Redemption is just that, our being brought back to the truth of our being. That story of human redemption is recalled in the Easter Proclamation and in the Old Testament lessons, psalms and canticles that bring us to the renewal of our baptismal vows, to our identity in Christ through his Death and Resurrection, the very story which has been re-presented to us in the symphony of the Passion that culminates in the Resurrection of Christ.
Our little country vigil, as I like to style it, highlights some of the essential features of the ancient Easter Vigil: the blessing of the Paschal candle marking the transition from the darkness of sin and death to the light and life of Christ, the singing of the Paschal Praeconium, the prophecies or lessons from the Hebrew Scriptures that belong to the Easter Mystery, the renewal of our baptismal vows as the annual rebirth of our souls in the mystery of Christ’s Resurrection, and the lauds of Easter Morning. Tomorrow we will participate in the sacrament of the Altar which is always a recollection and re-presentation of Holy Week and Easter.
It is all about the renewal and restoration of our souls in the grace of the mystery of the Christian Faith. The Vigil simply concentrates our life in faith. Through the rich imagery of the liturgy of the Vigil we are recalled to who we are in Christ. In being made partakers of his divinity, we are restored to the truth and dignity of our humanity as made imago dei, in the image of God, made imago Christi, in the image of Christ, made imago Trinitas, in the image of the Trinity – all three in one, we might say, each as a way of speaking about the God-given dignity of our humanity.
Holy Week and Easter witness to this deep truth about ourselves in the face of the evils and suffering of our world. That we are pierced in our hearts about such things belongs to the good of “this holy night.” We are pierced in sorrow for sin but pierced in joy and love for the triumph of life and love over all suffering, all sin, and all death. For this is our Easter joy.
Fr. David Curry
Easter Vigil 2026
Source URL: https://christchurchwindsor.ca/2026/04/04/sermon-for-easter-vigil-12/
Copyright ©2026 Christ Church unless otherwise noted.