Christianity

Newsweek magazine last week ran a cover story questioning whether we have entered an era of "post-Christian" America. While generally even-handed in treating the question, the magazine trotted out the usual anti-religious suspects who say that man's rational ability is incompatible with belief in ethereal beings.

But if you want to see and understand what Christianity is really all about, next year visit a Catholic church and attend the Easter Vigil Mass. Celebrated in nearly every Catholic church the world over at sundown the night before Easter, the Vigil encompasses thousands of years of Judaeo-Christian beliefs-from the creation of the world up to the modern Church.

The lengthy two or more hours) service, with its ancient and medieval overtones, is loosely divided into four parts:

• A brief service of light. A fire is lit outside the church, from which the presiding celebrant lights the Easter Candle, symbolic of Jesus Christ, the light of the world. The East Candle is born into the darkened church at the end of a solemn procession, and the flame of Christ is transferred to smaller candles held by all the worshippers, much as the first Apostles spread the flame of Christ throughout the known world. A deacon or priest chants the lengthy Easter Proclamation much as it might have been done in the Middle Ages.


• The liturgy of the Word. Worshippers listen to a series of Scriptural readings, beginning with the story of creation from the first verses of Genesis. Intersperse with Psalms, the readings tell the story of a faith community that stretches from the creation of mankind; to God's testing of Abraham on Mount Moriah (later called Calvary) where he was called to sacrifice his son Isaac, and where thousands of years later God would sacrifice his Son to redeem the sins of mankind; to the Hebrew Exodus from Egypt; to the words of the great Prophets; to St. Paul's Letter to the Romans, proclaiming eternal life to those who die to sin; and finally to Mark's retelling of the Resurrection.


• The liturgy of Baptism. At this Mass adults who have gone through a lengthy period of spiritual self-examination and discernment are baptized as Christians and confirmed into the Catholic Church. This is one of the most moving ceremonies in Christianity, as adults weep for the spiritual blessings God bestows on us.


• The liturgy of the Eucharist. The newly baptized Christians take their place with the other worshippers at the Table of the Lord for Holy Eucharist, a rite given to us by Jesus Christ himself.

From God's creation of the firmament to the newest Christian believers and the mileposts of belief in between--exodus, exile, crucifixion, death and Resurrection--the Easter Vigil sums up what it is to be a Christian and that for believers in the risen Christ there can be no such thing as a post-Christian world.

Even in a rational world, we who are Christians are not so because we understand. We are Christians because we believe. That's a big difference.

If you have the chance next Easter Saturday, check it out.

Just thought you might like to know.

Happy Easter!