Holy Saturday Vigil: 23 April, 2000.
The Rev'd Dr John Davis, Vicar, St Peter's Eastern Hill
Many years ago, at the age of 17, I first attended a Vigil mass very similar in shape to this at St
Francis Xavier's Cathedral in Adelaide. I had never experienced anything like it.It went for about
three hours. A big crowd - no doubt including quite a few like me, who didn't know quite what to
expect. There was a mysteriously impressive celebrant - an elderly archbishop. He was treated
with great respect! All these traditional ingredients were there - though for me they were exciting
and fresh: the new fire, the liturgy of the word; re-telling salvation history, the renewal of
baptismal vows, the first and glorious mass of Easter, so joyfully celebrated. I was never the
same again after that night. I still look upon it as the beginning of my life as a catholic
Christian.
It has to be an expression of the Divine sense of humour that the Mercy nun friend I had just met
at University who took me to that mass, ended up marrying a Jewish man of Russian extraction in
Canada and no longer believes, and I was to end up an Anglican priest in Melbourne. No doubt there
are people here in this church tonight coming from all sorts of diverse points of origin and quite
conceivably heading for a wide range of destinations. All are most welcome. There are times when
we find ourselves on a journey before we even knew we have stepped out.
The Easter Vigil is a wonderful celebration of faith in the midst of darkness. The sharp contrasts
between light and dark are well used. We have the powerful use of water and the explicit calling
down of God's blessing and the receiving of it. The direct and wonderful statement of relationship
is recalled and confirmed - "I shall be their God and they shall be my people." There is the clear
proclamation of God's action in history; promises and prophecies, all leading up to the events of
this Holy Week and this Easter celebration. It is a statement and a declaring of God's outreaching
love for his people, wherever and whoever they may be. For two adults here tonight, it is the
occasion of their baptism - a momentous and wonderful step. Three are standing as catechumens. For
more, it is an occasion to renew, to commit, to express again, faith in the living God. For all,
it is an opportunity to join in worship and hope.
Our solemn prayers at the foot of the cross on Good Friday were for a Church, a nation and a world
in sore need of healing and renewal. They were for new directions, fresh hope and life; for better
ways of dealing with problems, difficulties and disagreements. Wars, abuse, brutality; disease,
famine, injustice, crime, the breakdown of personal relationships - there has to be a better way
than that which we see, day by day. That way is offered in the Way of Jesus Christ, the risen one.
The Easter message remains one of hope and of new life, against what always have seemed to be the
most impossible of odds. For that we give thanks and rejoice. We are each and all called to share
in that hope.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed.
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Views is a
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St Peter's Eastern Hill, Melbourne Australia.
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