He is risen, truly he is risen!

(Photo shameless cribbed from Gerard and his wonderful post)

If this seems early for some of you, I apologize. For those of us attending Easter Vigil liturgies, we have been plunged into darkness, then seen fire blessed and made to light the Paschal Candle, which was processed in darkness and then raised high with the proclamation, “Christ, our Light!”

To which we responded, “Thanks be to God.”

We have listened to the Exultet, the great chant of Easter and been reminded of the whole pageant of redemption:

The power of this holy night
dispels all evil, washes guilt away,
restores lost innocence, brings mourners joy.

Night truly blessed when heaven is wedded to earth
and man is reconciled with God!

We have pealed the bells and sung “Glory to God in the Highest, and peace to His people on earth!”

We have seen family, friends and neighbors baptized and received into fullness of the church, and have chanted our pleas to heaven, to all the angels and saints to pray for them, and for us.

We shared a Holy Supper and received the Lord – blessed and broken – food for the world.

And now, some of us – against our better judgment are finally putting sugar in our coffee…or adding Splenda to the coffee and choosing to eat candy! We must break the fast and call a feast! The Lord is risen! Truly, he is risen, and our mourning is cast aside!

Write’s Deacon Greg in his tremendous homily for the night:

Spring began just two days ago, but here, in this sacred space, it is already in full flower.

And we can only gaze at it in wonder and joy – sharing in some small way the wonder and joy of our heavenly Father, who “looked at everything he had made…and found it very good.”

No matter what you hear in the news today (oh, boy!) this is the good news by which we may gain perspective on the rest of the news! As I write in my piece over at Pajamas Media:

And that is what Easter is – the long-term view – the answer to day-to-day bleakness. A review begins on the night before Easter, as Orthodox and Eucharistic churches chant out – through the eyes of faith – the whole history of the world; from creation to awareness, to covenant, to exile, to suppression, to oppression, to unthinkable incarnation and finally resurrection, salvation and sustenance, all woven together into a marvelous whole, and bound with the message, “I am with you always.”
[…]
The abiding message of Easter is actually contained not in the gospels but in the Revelation: “see, I make all things new.” It is at Easter that we are most powerfully enjoined to remember that promise, and to reflect back on our lives and our histories, just long enough to perceive where we have come from, so that we may look forward with anticipation; with the awareness that nothing is static – that nothing we see today will be exactly the same tomorrow – and with heartfelt appreciation for the knowledge that as everything in our lives slowly evolves, there is a hand in it, a promise of Presence, all with a long-term mindset, and a view to eternity. Happy Easter.

Indeed, Happy Easter, and may God bless you and yours on this day of all days.

And enjoy Dr. Sanity’s cartoons.