Easter Mysteries

Liturgical seasons, in a good sense, cause flashbacks in our lives. We recall the past seasons of our lives. Our liturgical memory occasions a revisiting of prayers, rituals, colors, musical sounds. Although the revised Roman Missal provides many blessings combined with the so-called “prayers over the people," I return consistently to a blessing, a reminder from Lents past. At most of my Eucharistic celebrations I end with the prayer over the people:

May the Lord make you more
fervent in prayer,
more eager in works of charity,
and more enthusiastic in celebrating
these mysteries by which we are reborn.

Various opening prayers and prayers after communion at Mass frequently speak about the “Easter mysteries." These prayers ask God to prepare us for these mysteries or that we be brought to the full joy of Easter. Lent, with its journey, brings us to the Easter mysteries. What are these mysteries “by which we are all reborn?”

The Language of Liturgy
To better understand these references to the Easter mysteries, a brief exploration of liturgical language might help. Within the Church today there is much discussion in the area of translation of liturgical texts. The lectionary first, and now the Roman Missal which is used in the celebration of Mass, have undergone renewed efforts at a new translation. One of the dimensions in the conversations might be the context of our present challenge to understand liturgical language and, more particularly, our Lenten and Easter language.

Within liturgical language--as in all language--one of the functions is to communicate meaning within the human family. Within this communication, one can both define and elaborate. Definition brings meaning inward and more clarified. In this sense language is restrictive.

Another function within language is more elaborative. Here we encounter the expansive and broadening dimension of language. Here language connotes rather than denotes meaning and thoughts about reality.

Known and Unknown
Let’s take a look at these “Easter mysteries.” First of all, often enough, mystery may invite thoughts of experiences unknown. Religious mysteries are quite the opposite. Mysteries (whether an original event or person or a set of rituals and words) are, in fact, revelatory of God’s presence among believers. We know God, for example, in the person and life of Jesus Christ. Another example is that our liturgical rituals with their words and actions invite us into the presence of the Holy.

The Easter Mysteries, in a defined sense, are the historical events in the life and death of Jesus in which we come to life through him. Here a believer can, as we do in the Creed, say that we are saved in the very death and resurrection of Christ. The quest of Lent, then, is how that historical event is made real in the life of the believing community. Likewise, conversion is how the believer can enter into the saving mysteries of Christ’s death and rising.

This central mystery of faith can be elaborated or expanded in our knowledge and experience through the mysteries of our faith. In liturgical churches like our own, whose spirituality and worship is incarnational, the worshiping community, in expressed ritual words, actions, and things, comes to know God. The Eucharist is a prime example of revelatory experience of God.

Eucharist, with a special emphasis in Lent and at Easter, celebrates the death and rising of the Lord. How do we do that as a believing community? The Word of God is spoken and received. In that encounter we enter into relationship with God and he with us. At the Eucharistic Table, in the forms of bread and wine, in its breaking and pouring out, the Lord is shown to us as broken/divided and as poured out/given for the life of all. We become the very mystery of Christ’s Body given for all.

Each Sunday of Lent, the Easter Mysteries are celebrated in the Eucharist. All comes from and points to the wonderful victory of Jesus Christ at Easter. We gather each Sunday, because on that day Jesus first rose from the dead. In him we also rise from the dead.

CDH