Night between Death and Resurrection

We all gathered that Saturday night in the dirt streets in El Mirador. It was a bit cold outside and the wind was sending dust into our eyes… but we gathered… granted it was an hour and a half after we had originally planned, but when Guatemala is playing in the World Cup Selection, Holy Saturday or no, it did not take from the Vigil that we waited until the game was over, and Guatemala had beaten Trinidad and Tobago. The focus remained on the victory of Christ over death.

Gathered outside the church, we lit a small bonfire in the middle of the dirt street outside of the church building. No one was likely to come our way. We gathered each with a small white candle and I held the Christ Candle. I was a bit nervous as it was my first time leading an entire service in Spanish, and this Vigil would require a lot of speaking on my part over the course of two and a half hours. We began with the confession and absolution. There was something strangely beautiful about pronouncing the absolution to those gathered as we began… our night lit only by the bonfire, awaiting the light of Christ, the light of forgiveness for us, the Light of the World.

A small but faithful group we read the texts, and the psalms, and sang… remembering the night between the death and resurrection of our Lord. We know that night well… it seems that many of us remain there between being put to death in our suffering, in our sin, in our pain and waiting… hoping… for the joy of the empty tomb… yes this new life we await is not without fear, as the Mary’s and the Disciples know well… but it is gift and promise and it is to have in sight what is now ours in Faith.

At times my voice was shaky as I got weary from the demand of leading a Vigil in a language that is still not my own… but I managed to settle in the depth of the night, to read slower (not a small feat for me even in Spanish) and let the words that we were reading both the liturgy and the biblical texts sink into us.

Starting late actually worked out beautifully, for we reached midnight at the point during our service right before we moved from the Old Testament reading to a reading from Romans and then a reading from the Gospel of John… so as we were about to read from Romans, I had us sing the Gloria. We read the text from Romans and John through the eyes and ears of the resurrection that is ours in Christ.

Exhausted but satisfied, we returned home at about 1:00am. Home to sleep in the peace that is ours. We all returned for the Easter Service later that evening in which we shared in the Body and Blood of Christ.