The Easter Vigil is the central celebration of our year. It begins at 4:00 or 4:30 AM on Easter morning. People come in the deep darkness of the night and enter the church in darkness, and in that darkness we read the story of creation and the dismissal from the garden of paradise. Then we send the people out into the night and down under the church to the cafeteria, emphasizing that we are each entering our own tombs. There, in pitch darkness, from another room, the readings from the Hebrew Bible proclaim the beginnings and glimmers of hope in salvation. The hope becomes string and alive in our hearing, until the women ask, "Who will remove the stone?" The presider answers, "You are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, he is risen."
In that moment a shofar sounds an earthy tone into the darkness, like the roar of an earthquake. A match is struck, and the fire in a hibachi is lit, blazing into brightness in the darkness. From that fire, we light four candles and give them to the holy women, who go among the people lighting the candles of the entire assembly. The paschal candle is also lit; it is held aloft by the priest, who shouts, "Christ is risen!" three times. The people respond loudly "Indeed he is risen!"
Then the singer sings the exsultet from a beautiful scroll that unfolds as she sings. Now the water is blessed for baptism. Dressed in white, the catechumens come forward and are baptized; they are handed lighted candles as they join the happy assembly. Then the candle bearer lifts the paschal candle, and the people emerge from the tomb into the bright light of day to walk in a procession up the Camden street with censers of incense, candles, flowers and bells.
Up the street they go, into the church and around the church - a transformed church. What they left in darkness is now a "garden" of exquisite beauty and hope. At the end of mass, each person is given a container of Easter water and a colored Easter egg with the greeting "Chris is risen" to take home.
We continue our grand celebration for the seven Sundays of Easter, baptize as many people as we can and move on to the great Pentecost, or "Green Sunday," as we call it. We gather the green branches that have overgrown everybody's yard and decorate the church like a rain forest. In that place of exuberant growth and fullness where the sap is bursting from the trees, we celebrate the coming of the Spirit to the entire world, the penetration of the cosmos with Christ's new life.