PASCHAL VIGIL by Fr. Stan Gumula
11 April 2020
Esmeraldas, Ecuador
¡Cristo ha resucitado! ¡Verdaderamente ha resucitado!
This is the reason for our joy. This is the explanation of the gladness that wells up in our hearts, hearts that have been saddened by the death of Jesus and the deaths of so many as the coronavirus spreads its havoc.
But the death of Jesus has brought us life and we can only believe that God has something wonderful in store for us as we pass through the deaths and the darkness caused by the plague of our times.
Esta es la muerte que transforma la vida.
Esta es la suprema expresión del amor.
Comunión de vida para el hombre.
Admirable intercambio y lugar de Dios.
Cruz de luz, plenitud, confiada entrega.
What powerful words! Words of hope when all hopes had seemed to have flown far from us!
¡Cristo ha resucitado! Life has been transformed, not ended! La suprema expresión del amor brings us a joy which no one can take from us. It brings us true communion, koinonia. Communion of life with one another and with the one who gave up all for each one of us. We sang at Christmas about the wonderful exchange which Jesus’ birth has wrought: God becoming human so that we might become gods. But it is this night when the apogee of this admirable intercambio fully occurs. Ese es el lugar de Dios, this is where God has chosen to dwell and to set up his tent.
¡Cristo ha resucitado! ¡Verdaderamente ha resucitado!
We search and search for security. We long for a place where we can put down the roots of our trust and our hope. And it is right here, right before us. Plenitud is found here, here where all seemed lost. Jesus on the Cross becomes the Risen One, he lives forever with the five wounds his sacrifice has given him. His surrender engenders the utmost confidence, that most special of realities: parrhesia. Boldness, security, utter trust is contained in those incredible words:
Cruz de luz, plenitud, confiada entrega!
¡Cristo ha resucitado! ¡Verdaderamente ha resucitado!