How is your celebration of Easter going? You may say to me, “Easter was weeks ago.” Yes, but the Easter Season lasts for 50 days, and we are about in the middle of it. The depth of the resurrection cannot be grasped in one sitting. We also want to reflect on the meaning of the Paschal Mystery in our daily lives. As we grow and change, the meaning develops and expands which makes this a lifelong process of revelation.
There are five possible Prefaces for Easter, each of which gives us something to ponder about this season of the Church year. Use them in your prayer. See if any words, phrases, or images strike you. Research any words that leap out; i.e. Lamb; restored; ransom; pleads; sacrifice; Victim; integrity; oblation; fulfillment, etc. Try to write a new version of the sentences in your own words. Ask yourself, how does the death and resurrection of Christ affect my daily life? (Yes, that may be a weighty and complicated question).
I. “For [Jesus] is the true Lamb who has taken away the sins of the world; by dying he has destroyed our death, and by rising, restored our life.”
II. “Through [Jesus] the children of light rise to eternal life and the halls of the heavenly Kingdom are thrown open to the faithful; for his Death is our ransom from death, and in his rising the life of all has risen.”
III. “[Jesus] never ceases to offer himself for us but defends us and ever pleads our cause before you: he is the sacrificial Victim who dies no more, the Lamb, once slain, who lives for ever.”
IV. “For, with the old order destroyed, a universe cast down is renewed, and integrity of life is restored to us in Christ.”
V. “By the oblation of his Body, [Jesus] brought the sacrifices of old to fulfillment in the reality of the Cross and, by commending himself to you for our salvation, showed himself the Priest, the Altar, and the Lamb of Sacrifice.”
All five end with these words: “Therefore, overcome with paschal joy, every land, every people exults in your praise and even the heavenly Powers, with the angelic hosts, sing together the unending hymn of your glory, as they acclaim: Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of hosts . . .”
In this Easter Season, may we all be overcome with paschal joy!
