VIGILIA DE PASCUA
ROMANOS 6, 3-11
¿O es que ignoráis que cuantos fuimos bautizados en Cristo Jesús, fuimos bautizados en su muerte? Fuimos, pues, con él sepultados por el bautismo en la muerte, a fin de que, al igual que Cristo fue resucitado de entre los muertos por medio de la gloria del Padre, así también nosotros vivamos una vida nueva.
Porque si hemos sido unidos con él por una muerte semejante a la suya, también lo seremos por una resurrección semejante; sabiendo que nuestro hombre viejo fue crucificado con él, a fin de que fuera destruido este cuerpo de pecado y cesáramos de ser esclavos del pecado.
Pues el que está muerto, queda librado del pecado. Y si hemos muerto con Cristo, creemos que también viviremos con él, sabiendo que Cristo, una vez resucitado de entre los muertos, ya no muere más, y que la muerte no tiene ya señorío sobre él.
Su muerte fue un morir al pecado, de una vez para siempre; mas su vida, es un vivir para Dios. Así también vosotros, consideraos como muertos al pecado y vivos para Dios en Cristo Jesús.
Paul introduces a new language here, for the same ideas: buried with Christ, dead to the world, we who were sinners… are now something else, a new creation, resurrected. Baptism is the sacrament of all this.
And the last phrase: “Así también vosotros, consideraos como muertos al pecado y vivos para Dios en Cristo Jesús” shows us that this is not just a celebration of something that happened, but of something that happens, because that is our life, to be like this, to rise every day to the new life of Jesus.
DOMINGO DE RESURRECCIÓN
HECHOS DE APÓSTOLES 10, 34 y 37-43
… Jesús de Nazaret, ungido por Dios con la fuerza del Espíritu Santo, que pasó haciendo el bien y curando a los oprimidos por el diablo; porque Dios estaba con él… Lo mataron colgándolo de un madero. Pero Dios lo resucitó…
The text records a sermon by Peter in Caesarea, in the house of the centurion Cornelius, and it is a perfect summary of the faith of the early communities. Jesus of Nazareth, a “anointed” man: it is the sign of the election of kings in the Old Testament. It means that he is “the chosen one of God.” The anointing consists in that he is filled with the Spirit; that is why he went about doing good and healing, freeing from the slavery of evil. All this is explained “because God was with Him.” This faith that God was with him was put to the test when they killed him on the cross. But that same faith was resurrected when they saw him alive, when those same disciples whose faith wavered “ate and drank with him after his resurrection.”
Therefore, the essence of the disciple is formulated here: witness of Jesus, who has recognized in him the presence of the Spirit.
It is hardly possible to exaggerate the importance of this text: it shows us the first Christology, probably the oldest; IT TELLS US WHAT THE FAITH OF THE WITNESSES CONSISTS OF.
When Jesus dies, defeated by his enemies, the official conclusion of Israel, and that of any normal Israelite is: “God was not with Him.” The Easter experience is formulated at first as an inversion of that statement: “God was with Him,” not with those who crucified him à “He was right,” a reason that comes from the same God.
This “God was with him” is the motivation why we adopt Jesus’ criteria and values, why we take his side and the side of all the crucified of the world. Because the appearance, and even a not uncommon religiosity is that having luck in the world, money, status, etc., etc., are blessings from God, which implies that God is with those. Well, no, God is with Jesus the crucified and with those crucified like him: and one must take sides.
COLOSENSES 3, 1-4
Ya que habéis resucitado con Cristo, buscad los bienes de allá arriba, donde está Cristo, sentado a la derecha de Dios; aspirad a los bienes de arriba, no a los de la tierra….
The same message is repeated that we read during the Easter Vigil in the letter to the Romans. You have been resurrected, live a new life; do not settle for the goods of clay, aspire to the goods of the Spirit, the goods from above, the superior ones, the definitive ones, the values of Jesus.
Paul repeats his same formulas: you have died, and the world and its values have died for you. Your values are not so for the world, but they are for God. And the message of hope is emphasized: these are the values of the future, those that one day will be revealed as true and definitive. All this is evident application of the “God was with him” that we have just read.
(This reading can be replaced by the following)
1 CORINTHIANS 5, 6b-8
Do you not know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough?…. Therefore, let us celebrate the Passover, not with the old yeast (yeast of corruption and wickedness) but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Paul takes up the traditional meaning of yeast, as remnants of the old that ferment the whole batch. He understands the old as corruption and wickedness, and the new as sincerity and truth. He is also speaking of the new life, in which nothing of the previous one, subjected to the world, its seductions, its values, should remain. The new is that of Jesus, living for the Kingdom. In different words, therefore, the same message is repeated: live as resurrected, let nothing of the clay remain in you, live according to the Spirit.
José Enrique Galarreta, S.J.