27 March 2027 · Latin Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malabar Rite · Syro-Malankara Rite · മലയാളം
“But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him.” Mark 16:6
Holy Saturday is the day of the great silence. Christ lies in the tomb. The Church does not celebrate Mass; she keeps watch, like the women who rested on the sabbath according to the commandment and waited for the first light of the week. An ancient homily read in the Office of Readings today says (in substance): something strange is happening, a great silence reigns on earth, because the King is asleep; God has died in the flesh and gone to awaken those who have slept for ages. This is what we confess in the Creed: “he descended into hell.” Christ, truly dead, went down to the realm of the dead, not to suffer but to proclaim the good news to the just who had gone before him, Adam and Eve, Abraham, Moses, David, the prophets. Holy Saturday is the day of Mary's faith too: when all seemed lost, she kept believing. Many families keep this day quietly, preparing the house and the clothes for Easter, going to confession, decorating the church, and fasting until the Vigil.
When night falls, the Church begins the most important celebration of the whole year. It has four parts. First, the Service of Light. The church is in darkness. Outside, a fire is blessed. The priest prepares the paschal candle: he cuts a cross into it, the Greek letters Alpha and Omega, and the numbers of the year 2027, saying: “Christ yesterday and today, the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and the Omega; all time belongs to him, and all the ages; to him be glory and power through every age and for ever.” He may set five grains of incense in the cross, for the five holy wounds. The candle is lit from the new fire: “May the light of Christ rising in glory dispel the darkness of our hearts and minds.” The deacon carries it into the dark church, singing three times “The Light of Christ,” and all answer “Thanks be to God.” Little by little, everyone's candle is lit from it, until the whole church glows. Then the deacon sings the Exsultet, the Easter Proclamation: “This is the night” when Israel passed through the sea, when Christ broke the chains of death; it even dares to sing of “the truly necessary sin of Adam” and the “happy fault” that won so great a Redeemer.
Second, the Liturgy of the Word. Candles are put down, and the Church tells the whole story of salvation, as Jesus did for the disciples on the road to Emmaus: creation, Abraham and Isaac, the crossing of the Red Sea, God's everlasting love for his bride, the invitation to come to the waters, the wisdom of the commandments, and the promise of clean water and a new heart. Each reading is followed by a psalm and a prayer. Then the altar candles are lit, the Gloria is sung, and the bells, silent since Holy Thursday, ring out. St Paul tells us what has happened to us in Baptism: “we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.” The priest intones the Alleluia three times, each time on a higher note, and the people repeat it: the Alleluia that fell silent on Ash Wednesday returns. The Gospel, from St Mark this year, tells of the women going to the tomb at sunrise with spices, wondering who would roll away the very large stone. They find it rolled back, and a young man dressed in white says: “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here.” And then: “go, tell his disciples and Peter.” Peter, who denied him, is named: the first Easter message carries forgiveness.
Third, the Baptismal Liturgy. The Litany of the Saints is sung: the whole Church in heaven is called to stand with us. The priest blesses the baptismal water, often lowering the paschal candle into it, and the elect are baptized, and adults are confirmed at once. Then all the faithful, holding lit candles, renew their baptismal promises: we reject sin, Satan and all his works and empty show, and we profess faith in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The priest sprinkles everyone with the blessed water. Fourth, the Liturgy of the Eucharist. The newly baptized may bring the gifts to the altar and receive Holy Communion for the first time. For the first time since Holy Thursday the Holy Sacrifice is offered: the Lamb who was slain now lives, and gives us his risen Body and Blood. At the end the deacon sings the dismissal with the double Alleluia: “Go forth, the Mass is ended, alleluia, alleluia.” The long night of the world is over. Christ is risen.
Theme: “He has been raised; he is not here.”
The Easter Vigil: light in the darkness, the story of salvation, the waters of Baptism and the empty tomb.
“Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.” Genesis 1:3
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” John 1:5
Apply: Light a candle at home this Easter week during family prayer, and let it remind you of your baptismal candle.
“Abraham said, “God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together.” Genesis 22:8
“Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.” Luke 24:27
Apply: Read one of the seven Vigil readings each day this Easter week.
“I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” Ezekiel 36:25–26
“Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.” Romans 6:4
Apply: Bless yourself with holy water each time you enter the church, remembering your Baptism.
“But Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid, stand firm, and see the deliverance that the LORD will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you see today you shall never see again.” Exodus 14:13
“But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him.” Mark 16:6
Apply: Tell one person this week, in your own words, why the Resurrection matters to you.
From one flame the whole church is lit: Christ is the light of the world.
In Baptism we died and rose with him; in the Eucharist we eat the Passover of the risen Lamb.
Take-home resolution: Renew your baptismal promises tonight with all your heart, and live this week as one who walks in newness of life.
Dear brothers and sisters, tonight we began in darkness. Then a single fire, a single candle, and the cry: the Light of Christ! And from that one flame the whole church was filled with light. That is Easter. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it (John 1:5).
Then we listened to the whole story of God's love: creation, Abraham's faith, the sea opening for Israel, the promise of an everlasting love, of clean water and a new heart. All of it was leading to tonight. As Jesus explained the Scriptures to the disciples on the road, the Church explains them to us: everything speaks of him.
In the Gospel, the women go to the tomb with spices, worried about a stone. They expect to anoint a dead body. Instead they meet a messenger: do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here (Mark 16:6). The stones we worry about are already rolled away by God.
And notice the next words: go, tell his disciples and Peter (Mark 16:7). Peter, who denied him three times. The first message of Easter has his name in it. Whatever you have done, the risen Lord names you tonight and calls you back.
In a few moments we will renew the promises of our Baptism. St Paul says: we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4). We will reject sin and Satan, and say: I do believe. Say it with your whole heart.
Then, for the first time since Thursday, the altar will be set, and the risen Lord will give himself to us in the Eucharist. Christ, raised from the dead, will never die again. Let the Alleluia return to your lips and never leave your life. Christ is risen! He is truly risen! Amen.
Children, tonight the church was dark, and then the big Easter candle was lit and everyone's little candle took light from it. Jesus is our light!
The women went to Jesus' tomb and found it empty. An angel said: he is risen! Let us shout it too: Jesus is risen! Alleluia!
O God, who make this most sacred night radiant with the glory of the Lord's Resurrection, stir up in your Church a spirit of adoption, so that, renewed in body and mind, we may render you undivided service. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen. Let us also pray: Lord Jesus, you lay in the tomb and went down among the dead to set them free. Keep us faithful in the silence, as your Mother was faithful. Tonight, light the fire of your love in our hearts, wash us again in the grace of our Baptism, and let us sing the Alleluia with our whole lives. Amen.
This is the longest Liturgy of the Word in the Roman year, and it is built as one story told in the dark, by the light of the paschal candle. Seven readings from the Old Testament walk through the history of salvation: creation, Abraham and Isaac, the crossing of the sea, then the promises of the prophets. At least three are read (in serious circumstances at least two), and the reading from Exodus 14 is never left out. After each one the people answer with a psalm or canticle: Psalm 104 or 33 on creation, Psalm 16 on trust beyond death, the Song of the Sea, Psalm 30, the song of Isaiah 12, Psalm 19 on the law, and Psalms 42 and 43 (or Isaiah 12, or Psalm 51) on thirst for God.
Then the Gloria is sung and the bells ring. Paul tells us what all this has to do with us: in baptism we went down into Christ's death and came up into his life. The priest intones the Alleluia, unheard since before Lent, and Psalm 118 answers it. Finally Mark sends the women to an open tomb. The key words of the night are light, water and new. Everything God did in the Scriptures is now seen from the morning of the Resurrection, and those to be baptized tonight step into the same story.
Setting.
The Vigil begins where the Bible begins. Many scholars think that this first account of creation reached its final form among the priests of Israel around the time of the exile in Babylon, when people lived among temples to the sun, moon and stars. Its language is calm and solemn. It does not argue with those gods. It simply says that the great lights are lamps which God has hung in the sky, and it does not even give them the names of sun and moon.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.” (1:3)
God creates by speaking. The Vigil has just begun with the new fire and the candle, and the deacon has sung “The Light of Christ” in a dark church. The first word of God and the first sign of Easter meet.
“So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” (1:27)
This is the root of the dignity of every person. Nobody earns it and nobody can take it away.
“God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good.” (1:31)
Sin has not yet appeared, and the world is good from God's own hand. Easter does not rescue us out of creation. It heals creation and begins it again.
“And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done.” (2:2)
Christ rested in the tomb on the seventh day, and on the day after the Sabbath he rose. So the Fathers call Sunday the eighth day.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism says that Scripture presents the Creator's work symbolically as a succession of six days (CCC 337), and that the seventh day completes the first creation while the eighth day, the day of the Resurrection, begins the new creation (CCC 349). Its treatment of baptism begins with this water over which the Spirit moved (CCC 1218). The prayer of the Roman Missal after this reading says, in substance, that nothing is more marvellous than the creation of the world except that, at the end of the ages, Christ our Passover has been sacrificed. Creation is great. Redemption is greater.
Setting.
God had promised Abraham countless descendants through Isaac, the son of his old age. Now God seems to ask for that promise back. The chapter is one of the most carefully told stories in Genesis. Jewish tradition calls it the Aqedah, the Binding of Isaac, and holds it in deep honour. The second book of Chronicles (3:1) identifies Mount Moriah with the hill on which Solomon built the Temple.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love,” (22:2)
The phrases come slowly, one after another, and each is heavier than the one before. The story knows what it is asking.
““The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”” (22:7)
The only question Isaac asks. It is the question of the whole Old Testament, and John the Baptist answers it: “Here is the Lamb of God” (John 1:29).
“Abraham said, “God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together.” (22:8)
Abraham does not explain, and he does not lie. His answer is pure hope. The phrase “the two of them walked on together” occurs twice (vv. 6, 8), and it is one of the most moving lines in the Bible.
““Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him;” (22:12)
The story ends with God stopping the knife. The law and the prophets will later condemn child sacrifice outright (Deuteronomy 12:31; Jeremiah 7:31).
How the Church reads it.
Hebrews 11:17–19 says that Abraham trusted that God could raise even the dead, and that “figuratively speaking” he received Isaac back. St Paul seems to echo this chapter when he speaks of God “who did not withhold his own Son” (Romans 8:32). The Catechism sees here the final purification of Abraham's faith, and links it with the Father who did not spare his own Son (CCC 2572). Origen, preaching on Genesis, sees in Isaac carrying the wood a figure of Christ carrying his Cross (in substance). What Abraham was spared, the Father gave. The Roman Canon still names “the sacrifice of Abraham, our father in faith”.
Setting.
This is the one reading that may never be omitted, because it is the Passover itself. Israel has left Egypt and is trapped between Pharaoh's chariots and the water. The people have just cried out in fear (14:10–12). The place cannot be fixed with certainty. Elsewhere the Hebrew calls it yam sûp (13:18; 15:4), which may mean “Sea of Reeds”, and the Greek Old Testament made it the Red Sea.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry out to me? Tell the Israelites to go forward.” (14:15)
The time for standing still is over. Faith here is a step taken toward the water, before the water parts.
“The Israelites went into the sea on dry ground, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left.” (14:22)
Death stands on both sides, and a road runs through it. So it is with the Christian: the way to life goes through the waters of death.
“So the people feared the Lord and believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.” (14:31)
The goal of the whole event is not only escape but faith.
““I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.” (15:1)
Israel's first song. Its praise is for God who broke the power of an oppressor; it is a slave people's cry that God is stronger than Pharaoh.
How the Church reads it.
St Paul says that our ancestors “were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea” (1 Corinthians 10:2). The Catechism names the crossing of the Red Sea as a figure of baptism, the true liberation from slavery (CCC 1221), and St Ambrose teaches the newly baptized the same in his work on the sacraments (in substance). The Exsultet has already sung of it tonight: this is the night when you led our forebears through the sea dry-shod. And the prayer after this reading asks, in substance, that the whole world may become children of Abraham and receive the dignity of Israel. The Church does not take the Exodus away from Israel. She asks to be brought in.
Setting.
These words belong to the Book of Consolation (Isaiah 40–55), addressed to the exiles in Babylon. Jerusalem lies in ruins and is pictured as a wife who has been sent away and left childless. The chapter follows straight after the song of the suffering servant (52:13–53:12), and it shows what that suffering has opened: a future for the people.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name;” (54:5)
The image goes back to Hosea and is used by Jeremiah and Ezekiel. God's covenant is not a contract. It is a marriage.
“For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with great compassion I will gather you.” (54:7)
The prophet does not pretend that the exile did not hurt. But he puts the anger and the love on two different scales: a moment against forever.
“This is like the days of Noah to me:” (54:9)
Water appears here too. The flood ended with a promise, and God now makes the same kind of promise to Jerusalem.
“For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,” (54:10)
To the ancient mind nothing was more lasting than the mountains. God's love is more lasting still.
How the Church reads it.
These words were spoken first to Israel, and they remain true for her, for God's gifts and call are irrevocable (Romans 11:29). The Catechism teaches that this prophetic image of married love prepared the way for the fuller understanding of marriage in Christ (CCC 1611). The New Testament also speaks of the Church as the bride for whom Christ gave himself (Ephesians 5:25–27; CCC 796). At the Vigil, those who feel abandoned hear that God's anger is the moment and his love the forever.
Setting.
This is the closing chapter of the Book of Consolation. The exiles are being invited home. The opening sounds like a street seller in a market, but what is on sale costs nothing, and the invitation also recalls Lady Wisdom calling people to her table (Proverbs 9:5). At the Vigil it is heard above all by those about to be baptized.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat!” (55:1)
There is only one condition: to be thirsty. Grace is a gift that cannot be paid for.
“let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” (55:7)
Forgiveness is not cheap, for it means turning around. Yet what we meet when we turn is a mercy larger than our sins.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.” (55:8)
In this setting, the verse is about mercy. God forgives in a way that human beings would not.
“so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” (55:11)
The word comes down like rain, does its work and goes back. Christians also hear in this movement the Word who came from the Father and returned to him (John 16:28).
How the Church reads it.
Jesus takes up this call on the last day of the feast of Tabernacles: “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me” (John 7:37), and John adds that he spoke of the Spirit. The Bible closes with the same invitation (Revelation 22:17). The Catechism teaches that water signifies the Holy Spirit's action in baptism (CCC 694). Bread and wine and water without price: the Church hears in this reading the sacraments about to be given tonight.
Setting.
The Book of Baruch bears the name of the scribe of Jeremiah and is set among the exiles in Babylon. Many scholars think that it was put together later from several pieces. It is one of the deuterocanonical books, preserved in Greek and received by the Catholic Church in her canon (CCC 120). This passage is a poem on wisdom, in the spirit of Job 28 and Sirach 24, written to a people asking why they are in a foreign land.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Hear the commandments of life, O Israel; give ear, and learn wisdom!” (3:9)
The opening echoes the great prayer of Israel, “Hear, O Israel” (Deuteronomy 6:4).
“You have forsaken the fountain of wisdom.” (3:12)
A short verse with the whole diagnosis. The exile did not begin with Babylon's armies. It began when the people left the source.
“Afterward she appeared on earth and lived with humankind.” (3:37)
Wisdom came near in the law given to Israel, which is what the poem goes on to say. Many of the Fathers heard in this line also the Word who became flesh and lived among us. Some scholars think the verse is a later addition; the Church's reading is the same either way.
“She is the book of the commandments of God, the law that endures forever.” (4:1)
The same step is taken in Sirach 24:23: wisdom is found in the Torah. Israel's love of the law is honoured here, and it is a love Jesus shared (Matthew 5:17–18).
“Happy are we, O Israel, for we know what is pleasing to God.” (4:4)
The poem ends in gratitude: the gift of knowing God's will is the people's happiness.
How the Church reads it.
St Paul calls Christ “the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:24), and John's Gospel says that the Word “lived among us” (John 1:14). Christ says, “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12). So the Church reads this poem by the paschal candle and hears it as a call to walk toward the one who is the light. The Church does not read it against the law of Israel. She reads it as one who has received wisdom from Israel's hand.
Setting.
Ezekiel was a priest taken to Babylon in the deportation of 597 BC. He speaks after the fall of Jerusalem in 587, to people who have lost their land and Temple and who feel that their God has lost too. The oracle looks back on the causes of the disaster and then forward to what only God can do. The next chapter is the valley of dry bones.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name,” (36:22)
This sounds harsh, but it is the strongest kind of comfort. Salvation does not depend on our having deserved it. It depends on who God is.
“I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.” (36:25)
Priestly language from the rites of purification (compare Numbers 19). Later tonight the priest will bless the water and sprinkle the people after they renew their baptismal promises.
“A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” (36:26)
Like Jeremiah 31:31–34, Ezekiel sees that the people's problem is deeper than behaviour, and that the cure must come from God.
“I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances.” (36:27)
The Spirit does not abolish obedience. He makes it possible from within.
“and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.” (36:28)
The words of the covenant. The promise is first of all to Israel, and God does not take it back.
How the Church reads it.
Jesus says to Nicodemus that no one can enter the kingdom “without being born of water and Spirit” (John 3:5), and he expects a teacher of Israel to have understood this. The Catechism sees in Ezekiel the conviction that conversion is first a work of grace: God must give us a new heart (CCC 1432). It also places these prophecies among the promises of the Spirit fulfilled at Pentecost (CCC 715). All seven readings have now brought us to this point: water and a new heart. Next comes the Gloria.
Setting.
Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome around AD 57, before he had ever visited them. He has just said that where sin increased, grace abounded all the more (5:20). Someone might then ask: should we go on sinning so that grace may grow? His answer is to remind them what happened at their baptism. This is the first reading of the New Testament on this night, and it is the key to all the Old Testament readings that came before.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” (6:3)
“Do you not know?” Paul assumes that this is common teaching, and something the Roman Christians already understand.
“Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.” (6:4)
The point of the sentence lies at its end. The goal of baptism is a way of walking, a daily life. Israel walked through the sea; the baptized walk in newness of life.
“We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.” (6:9)
The Resurrection is more than the return of a dead man to this life, as with Lazarus, who died again. Christ has passed beyond death's reach (CCC 646).
“So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” (6:11)
This is the first moral command in the chapter, and it rests on a fact. Become what you already are, by grace.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism teaches, with this very passage, that the believer enters through baptism into communion with Christ's death, is buried with him and rises with him (CCC 1227). The instructions to the newly baptized at Jerusalem, traditionally linked with St Cyril, explain that we did not really die or get buried, but that while the imitation was in figure, the salvation is real (in substance). That is why the Easter Vigil is the Church's great night for baptism, and why all present renew their promises after the homily.
Setting.
In this year's cycle (Year B) the Vigil Gospel is from Mark. These women had watched from a distance at the Cross (15:40) and had seen where the body was laid (15:47). They could not anoint him before the Sabbath, so they bought spices when it ended, on the Saturday evening, and came at sunrise. The Church reads to v. 7. The oldest complete manuscripts of Mark stop at v. 8, with the women in fear; the verses that follow (16:9–20) are also received by the Church as inspired Scripture.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“They had been saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?”” (16:3)
They came to care for a dead body, and they were worried about the wrong problem. God had already dealt with it.
““Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here.” (16:6)
The Greek form of “crucified” suggests a lasting state. The risen one is still the Crucified, and his wounds are not erased. The sentence is the shortest statement of the faith.
“But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.”” (16:7)
“And Peter”: he has denied Jesus three times (14:66–72), and he is named now. Galilee is where it all began. Jesus had promised this at the Last Supper (14:28). The call to follow can start again.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism says that the empty tomb is not in itself a direct proof of the Resurrection, but an essential sign, and the first step toward recognizing it (CCC 640). It also notes that the women were the first to encounter the mystery and the first messengers of the Resurrection, even to the apostles (CCC 641). St Gregory the Great, preaching on this Gospel, says that we too come to the tomb with spices when we seek the Lord with the fragrance of good works and virtues (in substance). Those newly baptized tonight are sent out with the same message.
Must we believe that God made the world in six days of twenty-four hours?
No. The Catechism says that Scripture presents the work of creation symbolically as a succession of six days (CCC 337). What the chapter teaches is that God alone is the Creator, that all he made is good, and that human beings bear his image. The Church welcomes the sciences, which study how the world has developed, and sees no conflict between them and faith in the Creator (CCC 283–284).
Did God really want Abraham to kill his son?
The narrator says from the first line that this is a test, and the story ends with God stopping the knife. Later Scripture firmly forbids child sacrifice (Deuteronomy 12:31). The chapter teaches that nothing we love, even God's own gift, comes before God, and that God provides. The Church does not read it as an example for anyone to copy.
Does God rejoice at the death of the Egyptians?
The song celebrates the end of slavery and of an oppressor's power. It is an ancient song and it speaks in the language of its time. A well-known story in the Jewish Talmud says that when the angels wished to sing that night, God stopped them, because the Egyptians too were the work of his hands. Christians, too, sing of the victory over the deeper slavery of sin and death, and pray for all who suffer and for those who wronged them.
The Roman Missal calls this “the mother of all holy Vigils”, a phrase from St Augustine. It has four parts: the service of light with the paschal candle and the Exsultet; the Liturgy of the Word; baptism and the renewal of promises; and the Eucharist. The rubrics ask that it begin after nightfall and end before daybreak. If you have only attended the shorter Masses of Easter, try to come to the Vigil once, and bring your children. In catechesis, the seven readings may be taught as seven steps in the one story of God who saves through water and word.