Alleluia!
Mons Soseman on Easter Sunday, April 24, 2011
All this week, at my Mom's, we have been going easy on water usage. Although the river has crested, and is on its way down very slowly, we still don't want to stress the drainage system. So, as I was at my sister Cheryl's this sunny Easter morning getting cleaned up, I flinched all of the sudden to see I had left the water running into the sink while I washed my hands. Then I realized, it was OK. The five seconds I had left the water run could not stress the East Moline drainage system. I could use all the water I wanted!
Resurrexit sicut dixit!
The great exuberance of Easter is met with the metaphor of water, water flowing forth from the side of the wounded Christ, the fountain of Sacramental life within the Church. Abundance, flowing forth from the side of the resurrected Christ through the Church as the new Jerusalem. Life giving, nourishing, water! Rejoice! the Lord is Risen! He has appeared to Simon!
The Church, in her Easter liturgy, greets the joyful news that Christ is risen with a song about Water. Just as in the Old Testament the people were sprinkled with the blood of the sacrificial lamb to show they participated in this sacrifice to God, the Church, on Easter Sunday, sprinkles everyone with the Holy Water blessed during the Easter Vigil, to remind us that each and every one of us is saved by that sacrifice of Christ. We are sprinkled with sanctifying, purifying water. Every one of us shares in the joy of the Resurrection, no matter how meek or small, no matter how sinful we feel: Christ has suffered, died and risen for us! The Lord is risen, Alleluia!
So, as you rejoice in the Lord's love for you, shown in his triumph over sin and death, take some time to meditate upon the words of the hymn sung during the sprinkling with Holy Water at Easter Mass:
Vidi aquam egredientem de templo,
a latere dextro, alleluia:
et omnes, ad quos pervenit aqua ista,
salvi facti sunt, et dicent, alleluia, alleluia.
V. Confitemini Domino quoniam bonus:
R. Quoniam in saeculum misericordia eius.
V. Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto:
R. Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper,
et in saecula sæculorum. Amen.
I saw water coming forth from the temple
on the right side, alleluia:
and all those to whom this water came
were saved, and shall say, alleluia, alleluia.
V. Give praise to the Lord, for He is good:
R. For His mercy endureth forever.
V. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost:
R. As it was in the beginning, is now,
and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
God Bless you and Happy Easter!
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