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METUCHEN — A hushed congregation seated in near-darkness inside the Cathedral of St. Francis of Assisi heard a message of hope and joy-filled life April 3 during the celebration of the Easter Vigil. Once Bishop James F. Checchio ignited then incensed, the Paschal candle in the sanctuary, a cantor sang the “Exsultet,” or Easter Proclamation, and lectors read Old and New Testament passages that shared the salvation history of God’s people from the world’s creation to the ministry of Christ.
“How we need the light of life this year,” the bishop said in his homily to the pandemic-weary congregation. “We know that night can be a time of silence, darkness and aloneness. It can also be a place of fear and danger… Easter proclaims that Christ, the light of the world, is truly risen. That fact of faith, that claim is proclaimed and celebrated on this holy day.”
Christ’s rising from the dead two millennia ago prompted a whole new world and value system to arise, he continued, a new way of being a human person with the possibility of eternal life with him.
“While the pandemic this past year is a crisis and has certainly caused pain, suffering and isolation,” Bishop Checchio admitted, “Christ’s resurrection gives us the gift of life, new joy and of light. [It] is our hope.
“In the midst of this pandemic year, this Easter we need to make room for the saving risen Lord Jesus Christ in our lives, in our hearts, in our families, our parishes, our diocese, our communities,” he said. “God really, truly, unconditionally loves us.”
Bishop Checchio told his flock, “We really need Easter to help us during this time of strife… Let us celebrate all the blessings Easter brings us. Jesus desires to fill us with the light of his love and his mercy, and we are asked to share that life with all that we encounter each day, in our words and actions and how we live our lives.”
The Easter Vigil is traditionally the liturgy when people throughout the world, after a period of preparation and instruction, are inspired to formally join the ranks of believers in the Catholic Church. Throughout the Diocese of Metuchen, some 66 men, women and young adults from 21 parishes were initiated into the faith that evening.