Triduum, Part II

(Last week we explored the history and rites for Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. This week we turn our attention to the Great Vigil of Easter.)

Through the Paschal mystery, dear friends, we are buried with Christ by Baptism into his death, and raised with him to newness of life. (BCP 292)

This participation in the dying and rising again of Jesus is the center of the Christian faith and life. It is the resurrection the apostles proclaimed to the world, and it is our sharing in it which makes us one with Christ.

The Great Vigil of Easter is the keystone about which the rest of the liturgical year is built; it underlies the weekly celebration of Sunday and the annual celebration of Good Friday and Easter. Through word and sacrament, we celebrate and make present (anamnesis: making present through remembering) the pivotal events of both the Old and New Testaments, most especially the passover of the Hebrews from the bondage of slavery in Egypt to the freedom of the Promised Land and the passover of Jesus and our own passover from the bondage of sin and death to new life in Christ.

In almost every language but English, the same word is used for the Jewish Passover and the Christian Easter: pascha. The Great Vigil of Easter not only marks the passage from Lent to Easter, it celebrates Christ’s Passover from death to life in the resurrection and our participation in it. Thus, the Easter Vigil is the fullest proclamation of that saving mystery. Central to it is the celebration of baptism, the sacrament of our entry into the paschal mystery, and the eucharist, the sacrament of our ongoing participation in it. While the rite expresses this, it is important to remember that it is not the rite but the paschal mystery itself which incorporates us into Christ’s saving acts.

The Vigil service consists of four parts, all of them very ancient: the Service of Light; the Service of Lessons, Christian Initiation, or the Renewal of Baptismal Vows; and the Holy Eucharist. If not dated to New Testament times, the Great Vigil of Easter, with these four components, is certainly documented in the second century. As the occasion in which the early Church baptized new converts to the faith, the service was preceded by two days of fasting. The night before Easter, the community gathered in vigil, listening to readings and instruction. At cockcrow, the baptismal water was blessed, the candidates were baptized and anointed with chrism, and then led into the assembly where the newly baptized were welcomed and participated in the eucharist.

It was in the early Middle Ages that a number of customs we now observe at the Vigil were begun, most notably the lighting of the new fire and chanting the Exsultet, that glorious prayer where the whole company of heaven, the creatures of earth, and the members of the church are called to rejoice in the victory of Christ. It was also during this time that many of the traditional readings were set: the stories of the Creation, the Fall, the Flood, the sacrifice of Isaac, the Passover and Exodus, Isaiah chapters 4 and 55, and the Valley of the Dry Bones. As pressure grew to baptize infants within a short period after birth, the Easter Vigil no longer was the principal time for baptisms, and the service gradually diminished from its place of prominence in the liturgical year. The 1549 Book of Common Prayer did not retain the Easter Vigil but instead incorporated some of its themes into the Easter morning propers; only a rubric, however, referred to the tradition of public baptisms at Easter.

The present edition of the Prayer Book restores this ancient service to its primary place in the church year. As the opening rubric on page 284 states, the Great Vigil is the first service of Easter Day, and it is the most appropriate occasion for the celebration of baptism. Next week we will examine the parts of the service.