HOMILY OF HOLY SATURDAY (EASTER NIGHT): YEAR A
HOMILY THEME: THE RESURRECTION IS OUR HOPE OF FREEDOM
BY: Fr. Celestine Muonwe
Genesis 1-2:2, Psalm 104 Romans 6:3-11, Matthew 28:1-10
Holy Saturday is the Lord’s Day of rest in the tomb, when the bridegroom is taken away from the bride, the Church, to suffer the fate of all humans: humiliation and death. Hence, no mass is celebrated in the mornings till the evening vigil.
This vigil is celebrated in the night unlike before, in order to stress that the Easter feast celebrates the triumph of light over darkness. Since the resurrection took place at night, it also signifies and fulfils the Jewish Passover, which took place at night leading to the deliverance of Isrealites from the house of bondage in Egypt. Hence, the Easter celebration commemorates our deliverance from darkness into the kingdom of God’s beloved Son.
ALSO RECOMMENDED: HOMILY OF HOLY SATURDAY (EASTER NIGHT)
The Jews and those who conspired to arrest and murder Jesus were rejoicing that they had succeeded in putting down their common enemy. The disciples starred in disappointment at the things that had happened and locked themselves up in prayer. In this wake keep, Christ’s enemies believed He had failed utterly and would soon be confined in the debris of history. The Jews did all they could to prevent the resurrection. They surrounded the tomb of Jesus with the detachment of Roman soldiers, who observed all precautions even to the extent of sealing off the tomb, which ironically, provided greater evidence to the undoubtable fact of the resurrection.
However, with the coming of the dawn on the first day of the week, some women from Bethany went to the sepulchre to anoint the body of our Lord. They had wondered: “who shall roll back the stone for us?” However, before they could reach their destination, the miracle of all miracles had taken place: the soul had returned to that cold body in the silent night in the tomb, the heart came back to life again and the face that was marked by pain and suffering, dejection and ignominy, came back in beauty and life, Christ burst open the prison of the grave and came back to life, never again to suffer death, but to live in everlasting power and glorious might. The events of this night are divided into four major parts:
1. The service of light
2. The liturgy of the word
3. The celebration of baptism, and
4. The liturgy of the Eucharist
1. The Service of Light (Lucernarium)
This ceremony starts with the blessing of the new fire, which was started by St. Patrick of Ireland who inculturated this practice from the Dvuidic pagan fires, to symbolize in the Christian religious sense, Christ, who arose victorious from His grave. His death on the cross was on account of the very fire of His redeeming love for us. The candle itself, its blessing and the lighting represent and symbolize to the world, the glory of the risen Christ, whose light left the tomb in splendour and glory.
Hence, it is lighted each day at Mass throughout the paschal season until the Ascension Thursday. Five grains of incense are inserted on the candle to remind us of the five wounds of Christ. The celebrant also inserts the Greek letters: Alpha (A), and Omega (Ω) along with the numerals of the current year (Like 2026) and says:
Christ yesterday and today, the beginning and the end, Alpha and Omega, all times belong to Him and all ages: to Him be glory and power through every Age forever, amen.
This prayer shows that nothing escapes the power and redemptive work of Christ, whole creation- man, things and time, now belong to him. With the lighting, the new marked candle becomes the symbol of the risen Christ triumphing over the forces of darkness bent on dominating and overcoming us and bearing in His Body His five most glorious wounds, which are the trophies of His victory.
When the deacon or the priest carries this candle in procession into the dark Church to dispel the darkness of the night, the full meaning of resurrection is greatly enhanced, as the candle bearer shouts Lumen Christi (light of Chrit), the community responds Deo Gratias (thanks be to God). When the community at the second proclamation lights their own paschal candles, it signifies that we all participate in the glory of the resurrection and have become light bearers, lights of the world. As the light of the paschal candle leads us into the Church, we recall the pillar of light that guided the Isrealites in the wilderness out of the land of Egypt.
Therefore, in the Easter we are to bring Christs’ light into the world full of darkness, sin and death. Sin is the source of all evil in the world, it is our responsibility as Christians to bring Christ into the world, to bring light wherever there is darkness and unbelief.
2. The Liturgy of the Word.
The readings selected for the liturgy celebrate the victory of God at various times in the history of salvation.
The first reading from Genesis, 1, 1-2,2 highlights the Lord’s victory over chaos and formless void, a victory over darkness and creation of the world. This was accomplished by the Trinity Himself, the Father created through the Word (Christ), and in the power of the Holy Spirit, who was hovering over the waters of the deep. God made the first man and woman and handed the beautiful creation into their own hands. However, through man’s sin in connivance with the devil, the good works of God was ruined, death came and the order of the world became affected by the poison of sin.
Jesus, the second Adam came to the rescue, such that the tree of death and sin in Adam, became conquered by the tree of the life on the cross; the extended hands of our first parents towards the tree of death is cured by the extended hands of Christ that welcomes all towards the path of redemption. The Exultet, the hymn of praise calls the sin of Adam, a happy sin, a necessary sin that has merited for us, such a wonderful Saviour.
In other words, when sin reigned, God’s grace abounded the more. The sin which should have been a sign of damnation, has brought us a higher life that Adam and Eve never had before, the grace of eternal union with God in heaven. Suffering and death, which are the outcome of man’s sin, through the incarnation of Christ, has now become the means of redemption.
The second reading from the Genesis 22:1-18, narrates the story of Abraham, who out of his fear for God and love for Him obeyed God’s command and did not hesitate to offer his only son to God in sacrifice. Isaac is a symbol of Christ, who carried His own cross to the place of His crucifixion. Whereas God provided a lamb for the sacrifice of Abraham, God’s lamb was His own beloved Son, who satisfied the Father’s anger and won life and redemption for us.
The third reading narrates the story of the passage of the Isrealites through the Red Sea in a dramatic act of liberation by God, from the hands of Pharoah. This account symbolizes our passage from the power of the evil one, from the slavery of sin, through the death and resurrection of Christ, to freedom as children of God.
In the fourth reading, St. Paul, in a most illustrative manner, recalls the relationship between the Christian baptism and the death and resurrection of Christ. According to him, our baptism leads us into death with Christ, such that the resurrection of Christ from the dead symbolises our new life in Him who conquered death, and brought us new life. Just as the Lord overcame sin and death, so should we live our lives as those who have overcome death, away from sin and iniquity
In the Gospel, we hear the post- resurrection account, and how the disciples of Christ discovered the empty tomb and the angel that told them that the Lord is risen and has asked the women who had come to anoint His body to inform His apostles that He has gone to Galilee ahead of them, they will in fact, see Him there. It was only St. Mathew that provided this detailed account.
Application to Life
The angel who had removed the stone covering the tomb sat on it as recorded by Mathew. This shows that the place of death has been turned into a place of rest. Though the Lord was buried here, now He has risen, hence, our own death now means a transition from the bodily life to heavenly life for those who die in Christ. Hence, for believers, death is but a momentary resting period of the body, which has become weakened by the drudges of life, but will one day, at the last day, rise again in union with Christ’s spiritual Body into the eternal joy in heaven.
With the resurrection of our Lord, the image of the angel that rolled over the stone from the tomb of Christ, reminds us of the role of our guardian angels whom God has commissioned to guard and protect us. We should always remember such gifts of God’s mercy and pray to them, that by God’s mercy they might role over the stone of bondage that imprison us in sin, that we may emerge victorious over the desires of the flesh and the world.
Christ’s resurrection from the tomb reminds us of the need to rise from our own sinful conditions, that is, from our own tombs. What is your own tomb? Each one of us has something that keeps us away from Christ, worldly attachments that draw us away from holiness of life, and from realising the goals of our earthly existence, to know God, love Him, serve Him, and be with Him in heaven at the last day. With the resurrection of Christ, we must have to find out those hindrances, those tombs, and surrender them to the resurrected Lord, so that He would take us out of these tombs into freedom, into the light of the resurrection.
The image of the guards who were frightened by the presence of the angels shows us that those who do the noble will of God, will overcome and be lifted up in this life and on the last day, but the wicked ones will be frightened to death, on account of their wickedness and would be cast out of God’s love forever.
The angel asked the women not to be afraid themselves. Fear chains us and prevents us from doing God’s will, from achieving our potentials in life. The women saw what they never bargained for. The joy of the resurrection frees us from fear and grants us peace in doing God’s will and following Him even if it means paying lots of price for the course of truth.
The women became the most privileged persons to witness the resurrection and announce its good news to others. Just like the women, we are all called to bring the good news of Christ’s resurrection into the life of the society, to the world. We join them in announcing this good news with our lives of witness in our various callings, as bankers, politicians, teachers, labourers, and in our various families.
Jesus asks His disciples to meet with Him in Galilee. Galilee was the gateway to the nations and a cosmopolitan city made up those who worship pagan gods and all manners of sinful people. We are also called upon by Christ to bring the message of Easter to the peripheries, to those who have fallen away from the faith, to the poor, the sick, the outcast, the widows etc. We must be ready to bring light where there is darkness, to bring hope in the midst of despair and desperation. In our country Nigeria today, the message of Easter is that even amidst the present gloom, that the light of Christ will eventually overcome all the darkness of poverty, corruption, unemployment, greed and so many other evils plaquing our society.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, you are the Resurrection and the Life, please grant that as we celebrate your victory over death, we may rise from the tombs of our sinful lives into the life of unending peace and joy in your Spirit now and forever, amen.
FOR A SIMILAR HOMILY, CLICK HERE>>>>>