Given on 19th April 2025, for the Easter Vigil at Westminster Cathedral.
Tonight we’ve been playing with fire.
We have seen the fire, lit and burning – with great care, of course – at the entrance to the Cathedral: one of the most powerful symbols of this night, drawing us into its wonder.
This fire brings light to darkness: not just the darkness of the unlit Cathedral, but to every realm of darkness.
This fire of God’s creative Spirit is at work in creation. We heard, in the first reading, that the separation of light and darkness is the first step of the action of creation itself, giving pattern to our world.
We heard in the second reading that a pillar of fire led the people out of slavery into freedom. Tonight we too sense the light of God overcoming the darkness of our confusion, our waywardness, illuminating the path we are to follow.
And there is more. In the Exsultet, sung for us this evening, we heard that ‘with a pillar of fire you banished the darkness of sin’; and ‘This night shall be as bright as the day, dazzling is this night… and full of gladness’.
This song echoes through the centuries down to us, here tonight. Let me take just one example.
St Francis of Assisi sang lyrically of fire: ‘Praised be You, my Lord, through Brother Fire, through whom You light the night and he is beautiful and playful and robust and strong.’
Beautiful, playful, robust and strong. These are words to treasure as we come to see how the fire we have witnessed becomes fully focussed, concentrated almost, into one candle, representing one man, Jesus, the Christ. His rising from the darkness of the tomb into new the light we celebrate this night.
The song of St Francis applies to the Risen Lord.
He is beautiful, for he is the face of God in our flesh and blood. That face, so disfigured that it was rejected and looked upon with disgust, has reclaimed its brilliance and now glows with new light, seen in his Transfiguration, drawing our hearts to him in amazement and love.
This risen Jesus is playful, for he dances with delight at his victory over death and at seeing new life flooding the world, raising up all that was fallen and renewing with vigour and joy all who come to him.
This risen Jesus is robust. His first act after his death is to visit the regions of hell. In the Apostles’ Creed we profess: ‘he descended into hell’. There he demonstrates his power over death and evil, raising up all who are trapped in darkness. The risen Christ is robust indeed.
At this moment we pray for all whose lives may be described as ‘a living hell’, whether through radical isolation, unremitting and intense pain, or because they are caught up in the theatres of war in our world today, those seemingly endless conflicts. We pray for peace. We pray especially for those about whom it has been said, in recent times, that ‘all hell’ will be unleashed on them. May that never be so! May courageous restraint, even in the face of evil, be found as a foundation for true peace.
This victory over death, the ultimate enemy, is, then, also the foundation of our hope – a stubborn, robust hope that the purposes of God will be fulfilled and that all those who cling to him will not be abandoned. They will come to share the light and glory of his promised kingdom. This is the hope we are to strengthen and deepen today, clinging to it insistently in this Jubilee Year, in which we are ‘Pilgrims into Hope’.
And Jesus, like the fire of which St Francis sang, is strong. Indeed, it is on his strength that we draw when we are burdened and weak. Throughout his ministry, Jesus brought his gift of strength and hope to so many people who touched him, who cried out to him, who placed their needs before him. The Gospels are full of accounts of moments when the strength of Jesus was put to the service of those in need. And now he shares that strength with us that we may do likewise, serving him in all around us, especially those most in need.
Tonight we have heard and followed what is called the narrative of our salvation history. In word and music, symbol and action, we have reminded ourselves of the activity of God in this world, in years past and in our own times. The fire, the energy, the work of the Holy Spirit, which we have pondered, has more to do. We recall that after the death of Jesus the disciples were fearful and hidden in their upper room. Then, a strong wind filled the place and they saw flames of fire ‘that rested on each one of them; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit’ (Acts 2:3-4). The mission of the Church burst into life.
This evening, as the Paschal Candle was carried through the Cathedral, that flame of the Risen Christ was passed among us, until each one of us, like those first disciples, was receiving and bearing that light, that flame – beautiful, playful, robust and strong. That is how we are to be in our life in Christ, from this Easter Day. Beautiful in the love and charity we show to each other; playful in the joy with which we live each day; robust in seeking everything that is right and just and prospering of peace; strong in adversity, in sickness and even in the face of death. For Christ, our light, is victorious and he gives us our place in his victory, and in his work to be done in our world today.
A happy and blessed Easter to you all!
Image: Mazur/cbcew.org.uk