The Easter Vigil 2025
Luke 24:1-12
We have been keeping vigil: we have been watching and waiting. Yesterday we venerated the Cross, but now the Cross is empty, and today we have been through a non-day, liturgically speaking: nothing has happened until tonight. And tonight, we have no longer waited: we have prepared.
We have scattered the darkness, as the darkness was scattered at creation. We have recounted the works and wonders of God in creation and in the history of salvation. We have sung our Gloria and our Easter Alleluias, all leading up to the greatest proclamation of all—that Christ is risen.
Yet, in one sense, what a half-hearted proclamation that has been. We have found, in St.Luke’s Gospel, more puzzlement than proclamation; more questioning than jubilation. The women are perplexed, the apostles are scornful, Peter is running and marvelling, though the verse about Peter isn’t found in all the manuscripts. After all our build-up, Luke’s account may seem something of a damp squib.
Of course, there was more to come. There were the appearances of the Risen Christ: to Mary Magdalene and the other women, to the apostles in the Upper Room and on the lake shore, to Cleopas and his pal on the road to Emmaus, and so on. It was a gradual unfolding. The penny dropped by stages.
We are more fortunate than the disciples. We have the benefit of hindsight: we know the whole story. No need of puzzlement, of doubt, of questioning for us. Our celebration, our jubilation, can be, and is wholehearted. We can sing our Alleluias with full voice.
But if there is anyone who remains puzzled, who still has questions, there is consolation in tonight’s Gospel. Don’t worry. Don’t be disheartened. You are sharing in the experience of the women and of the disciples. The penny took a while to drop for them: please God, it will drop, in stages, for you.
