To speak of the Easter Vigil in the Neocatechumenal Way we have to go back to the Second Vatican Council: a response of the Holy Spirit to the challenges of the modern world that has renewed the liturgy, rediscovering the Easter Vigil. It has rediscovered the catechumenate and the whole process of Christian initiation and the centrality of Sacred Scripture which, together with the Eucharist, nourishes the faithful.
At the same time, the same Holy Spirit raised up the Neocatechumenal Way in the barracks of Palomeras. The Virgin Mary inspired Kiko Argüello: "We must make Christian communities like the Holy Family of Nazareth, living in humility, simplicity and praise. The other is Christ." An itinerary lived in small community based on a tripod: Word, liturgy and community.
The then Archbishop of Madrid recognized in the experience lived by Kiko Argüello, Carmen Hernández and the friars of the very first community born in the barracks, a true rediscovery of the Word of God and an actualization of the liturgical renewal promoted by the Second Vatican Council. This has been recognized by all the Popes up to today, as "a true gift of Providence to the Church of our times".
On so many occasions both Kiko Argüello and the Servant of God Carmen Hernández, initiators of the Neocatechumenal Way, have spoken of how God prepared them to be instruments to bring the Second Vatican Council and the Easter Vigil to the Way and to the Church.
In this regard, during the ad limina visit of the bishops of the Dominican Republic in 2015, Pope Francis stressed that : "The Neocatechumenal Way has restored the Easter Night in the Church".
God prepared Carmen Hernandez to bring to the Neocatechumenal Way all the renewal of the Council, and especially the liturgical renewal and the centrality of the Easter Vigil. Throughout his life, his studies in Valencia, his "Gethsemane" in Barcelona, Fr. Farnés, and his trips to the Holy Land, will be flooded by the Paschal mystery of Jesus Christ. And so he presented the Council to Kiko "on a platter". Kiko would transform it into catechesis, as a good artist, for the whole Christian initiation.
To understand the Passover that Jesus Christ will celebrate," Carmen told us, "it is necessary to understand the environment in which this Passover was born and how God manifested it. The Christian Eucharist, in fact, brings to fulfillment the Hebrew Passover (cf. CCE 1340.1390). Jesus Christ is not in just any supper, but in the greatest liturgy of the people of Israel, a sacramental night."
Easter is not an empty rite, but a memorial, a sacrament, an actualization, an event that takes place in each of the diners. God spends that night saving, acting. "And this Passover, in which the people of Israel celebrated the passage from slavery to freedom, is the one to which Christ gives a new content: a memorial of his passage from death to life. Jesus Christ leaves us the Easter celebration as a memorial of his passage from this world to the Father: an exultation, a thanksgiving, for the events that the Father has done in Jesus Christ for us. He has left us a living sacrament in which we can pass from death to resurrection. The Easter Vigil, and every Eucharist, Easter of the Weeks, is a proclamation of the sacramental presence of Jesus Christ risen from the dead."
A peculiar aspect of the Jewish Passover, which Carmen Hernandez also transmitted to the Neocatechumenal communities, is the great protagonism of the children. At a certain moment of the celebration, the son asks the father: "...".Why is tonight different?" And the father instructs him according to the Lord's command (Dt 6:4-9). The people of Israel knew that they were chosen by God and on the night of Passover they remembered God's wonders on their behalf.
The Neocatechumenal Way has introduced within the Easter Vigil a moment in which parents, like the Hebrew Passover, transmit the faith to their children narrating, in an existential way, what God in Jesus Christ has done and continues to do with them in the Church. It takes place within the context of the proclamation of the Word, where one has "The children's song".which helps children to be awake and expectant.
A charism centered on the Easter Vigil
Thus, the centrality of the Easter Vigil arises in the Neocatechumenal Way, as it is affirmed in the Statute of the Neocatechumenal Way: "The axis and source of Christian life is the paschal mystery, lived and celebrated in an eminent way in the Holy Triduum. It constitutes the axis of the Neocatechumenate, as a rediscovery of Christian initiation. The Easter Vigil is the inspiration for the whole catechesis".
A great deal of work is done in each community to prepare for the Easter Triduum celebrations. The whole community gets to work. It is the night of all nights, in which the Lord is going to pass. Everyone is involved in the preparation of these holy days: monitions, readings, flowers, acolytes, psalmists. Also the children are especially instructed to live the solemn Vigil.
Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday are more intense days in which all the communities dedicate the whole day to prepare everything for the different celebrations, beginning with the prayer of Lauds and the parish office. The Easter fast during Holy Friday and Holy Saturday maintains this tension and helps to be vigilant while waiting for the Lord.
The celebration of the Easter Vigil is lived with great expectation; the preparation has been great. The extensive liturgy of the Word without haste, with several moments for the resonances, and with the transmission of the faith to the children; the whole Vigil is carried out entirely at night, extending for four or five hours; the baptismal liturgy, well into the night, another important moment of the celebration, which is lived as a great feast; to conclude with the Eucharistic liturgy, which is carried out with all solemnity. The eschatological dimension is also very present, since the Messiah will return at Easter.
Easter fruits
The whole evangelizing power of Christian families is nourished by the Easter experience. One could collect numerous testimonies of how this liturgical understanding has helped so many people.
Evangelization necessarily springs from Easter. One of the most outstanding fruits are the families on mission: families willing to leave everything and go on mission anywhere in the world. Many of them have already been sent by different Popes, since St. John Paul II.
The Lord has also raised up many young people along the Way who offer their lives to the Lord to become priests and to be able to support these families, thus giving birth to the Seminaries. Redemptoris Mater. Another Easter fruit.
From the celebration of the Easter Vigil comes the mission in the squares, which takes place on Easter Sundays. It is a spectacle to see so many young people fearlessly witnessing to the power of the Risen Christ, carrying the first proclamation in the streets. The openness of families to life is another undeniable fruit of Christ's victory over death and sin. This is witnessed by so many confreres. And there are many other miracles that we could recount. As I began this article, my life is a clear fruit of the Lord's Passover.
Rector Redemptoris Mater Seminary of Cordoba, Spain.
