DAILY GRACE
April 15, 2020, Wednesday in the Octave of Easter
Selection: The Exultet
This is our Passover feast,
when Christ, the true Lamb, is slain,
whose blood consecrates the homes of all believers.
This is the night when first you saved our fathers:
you freed the people of Israel from their slavery
and led them through the dry-shod sea.
This is the night when Christians everywhere,
washed clean of sin and freed from all defilement
are restored to grace and grow together in holiness.
This is the night when
Jesus Christ broke the chains of death
and rose triumphant from the grave. . .
The power of this holy night
dispels all evil, washes guilt away,
restores lost innocence, brings mourners joy;
it casts out hatred, brings us peace, and humbles earthly pride.
Meditation
“This is the night. . .”
When we think of Easter, most likely we think of Easter Sunday morning, Easter egg hunts, Easter bunnies, Easter candy, Easter clothes . . . The Exultet, however, takes us back to the night, to several important nights in the history of the world: the night of Passover, when the angel of death passed over the houses of the Israelites who had marked the lintels of their doors with the blood of the lamb; the night of the Exodus, when God freed Israel from slavery; the night when Jesus Christ broke the chains of death, rising triumphantly from the grave.
Easter is about remembering these important nights. If we forget them, we forget who we are — who we have been made to be through the life, death, and resurrection of the Son of God, the Lamb of God, who loved us and gave his life for us.
These nights have something in common: they are nights when God acted powerfully to free people he chose from situations of slavery and imprisonment. The Israelites had been in Egypt for 400 years, reduced to pitiful, miserable slavery under the Egyptian lash. God intervened on their behalf. He invited them into a love relationship with him. He promised to protect and cherish them, if they desired to be a faithful people dedicated entirely to his love and worship. Of course, at this point, the newly freed slaves were full of promises about their fidelity to this God who was working on their behalf. These promises eventually disintegrated to mediocrity, indifference, forgetfulness, and finally idolatry. No matter how much God called out to them, they insisted on giving themselves to other gods.
The night of the resurrection was an exodus in which Jesus himself came to lead us out of this slavery of sin and death, this hopeless adultery. Christ walked before us, with us, in us, and for us to the Father. This night, every Easter night, we ae connected to the ongoing, perpetual, dynamic movement of exodus that frees us and weds us to God.
Prayer
God, help me remember who I am. Don’t let me settle for the mediocrity of consumerism, compulsion, indifference, or boredom. Because of “this night,” wake my heart to a selfless concern for others, simplicity, generosity, and a real dedication to the joy of others. Amen.
Contemplation
Lord, I remember who I am.