What a journey

The texts for the Vigil Mass for Easter Sunday are used this evening to celebrate Easter. The sense of this celebration is to trace the path from the beginning, Creation, to the realization of Life eternal within Christ. The Creation passage from Genesis is identified by Friar Jude Winkler as the "Priestly narrative". It was written during the Exile in Babylon and it sets the God of Israel apart as Creator Who culminates the universe with male and female in His image who are the "bestess". The pattern of work and Sabbath is established. This cycle is different from the 15 day "week" of Babylon at that time. Standing out as people chosen to inherit a Promise is affirmed and solidified as Abraham moves to the mountain top with the one to fulfill the Promise, the beloved son Isaac, proclaiming that the sacrifice they need will be (or has been?) provided by the Lord. The wavering of Abraham in being truthful is replaced with trust in the transcendent God who delivers results beyond the understanding of humans. The Exodus account of the crossing of the water by the escaping Israelites and the destruction of the army of Egypt who are in pursuit is the intervention of "strong arm and mighty hand" in the establishment of the Covenant of between the Israelites and God. The ancient song of celebration recognizes the role of the glory of God in shattering the enemies of Israel. The passage from Isaiah is characterized by Friar Jude as God showing Himself to the exiles that He is "Goel", the one responsible, in Jewish culture, to safeguard the persons, property and prosperity of the family. There are no circumstances under which God will not continue to love and redeem the people with whom He is Covenant. The gracious free gifts of God to all nations embodied in the experience of the Exiles in the Book of Isaiah is revealed in the Wisdom of the Law of God, the Torah, as proclaimed by Baruch as the path to understanding what pleases God. Ezekiel identifies that God desires to free His people from their slavery to sin and the practices of those who have not accepted the Law of God by cleansing, forgiving and centering their relationship with God on the Spirit which resonates within their "heart", the place of deep understanding in Jewish thought. The Covenant is renewed as "you shall be My people and I will be your God". Paul proclaims to the Romans the Promise of Christ to share Life with us through Baptism as the sign of our desire for a relationship with God that is the Way in which our old self, focused on ego, self aggrandizement,  pride, power and privilege dies and rises with Christ to live for God in intimate relationship with Jesus. The journey pauses at the Gospel account from Mark of the experience of the women, first to the tomb on Easter morning. The body they expected to anoint is gone. Mark who is writing to a community of martyrs in Rome in the first century leaves us in the expectation that our relationship with God will transcend physical death as we pass over to the realm of the eternal as resurrected and no longer bound by our physical bodies.