Easter Sunday - April 12, 2009

I heard of a TV reporter interviewing a group of understandably excited youngsters in New York City's Rockefeller Center. He chose one six year old and asked patronizingly, "What does the Easter bunny mean to you?" The boy without a second's hesitation replied, "Jesus died for our sins and then rose from the dead."

The stuttering reporter quickly asked, "But what does that have to do with the Easter bunny?" The boy said very resolutely, "Nothing."

The question of the reporter can be changed and we can ask: “What does the Resurrection of Christ have to do with my life?”

Will the answer be a similar reply of “absolutely nothing”? Jesus Christ is risen, but in my daily life He has been already dead for a long time.

Our faith is deeply rooted and finds its real meaning in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

St Paul says that, if Christ is not risen, then all our believing is in vain.

This is certainly the central truth of Christianity. But are we as resolute and sure as the boy was when he responded at Rockefeller Center?

Before the Gospel is proclaimed, the ancient sequence Victimae Paschali of Easter Sunday is read or sung. The Sequence (Sequentia) is the liturgical hymn of the Mass, which occurs on four feasts: Easter, Pentecost, Corpus Christi and Our Lady of Sorrows. This sequence, Victimae Paschali is attributed to Wipo of Burgundy, who was chaplain of the German Emperor Conrad II during the 11th century.

Easter Sequence:

VICTIMAE Paschali laudes immolent Christiani.	CHRISTIANS, to the Paschal Victim offer sacrifice and praise.
Agnus redemit oves: Christus innocens Patri reconciliavit peccatores.	The sheep are ransomed by the Lamb; and Christ, the undefiled, hath sinners to his Father reconciled.
Mors et vita duello conflixere mirando: dux vitae mortuus, regnat vivus.	Death with life contended: combat strangely ended! Life's own Champion, slain, yet lives to reign.
Dic nobis Maria, Quid vidisti in via?	Tell us, Mary: say what thou didst see upon the way.
Sepulcrum Christi viventis, et gloriam vidi resurgentis:	The tomb the Living did enclose; I saw Christ's glory as He rose!
Angelicos testes, sudarium et vestes.	The angels there attesting; shroud with grave-clothes resting.
Surrexit Christus spes mea: praecedet suos in Galilaeam.	Christ, my hope, has risen: He goes before you into Galilee.
Scimus Christum surrexisse a mortuis vere: Tu nobis, victor Rex miserere. Amen. Alleluia.	That Christ is truly risen from the dead we know. Victorious King, Thy mercy show! Amen. Alleluia.