Proclamation of the Date of Easter - Sermon - Proclamation

EPIPHANY SOLEMN PROCLAMATION OF THE DATE OF EASTER 2020

[Chanted]

Dear brothers and sisters, the glory of the Lord has shone upon us,
and shall ever be manifest among us, until the day of his return.

Through the rhythms of the times and the seasons

let us celebrate the mysteries of salvation.

Let us call to mind the new year's culmination,

the Easter Triduum of the Lord:

his last supper, his crucifixion, his burial, and his rising

celebrated between the evening of the Ninth day of April
and the evening of the Eleventh day of April,

Easter Sunday being on the Twelfth day of April.

Each Easter - as on each Sunday -
the Holy Church makes present the great and saving deed
by which Christ has for ever conquered sin and death.

From Easter are reckoned other days we keep holy.

Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent,

will occur on the Twenty-sixth day of February.

The Ascension of the Lord will be commemorated

on Thursday, the Twenty-first day of May.

Pentecost, joyful conclusion of Eastertide

will be celebrated on the Thirty-first day of May.

The Feast of the Holy and Undivided Trinity

we will mark with joy and awe on the Seventh day of June,

and the Feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

follows on the Eleventh day of June.

Likewise, the pilgrim Church proclaims the Passover of Christ
in the feasts of the holy Mother of God,

in the feasts of the Apostles and Saints,
and in the commemoration of the faithful departed.

To Jesus Christ, who was, who is, and who is to come, Lord of time and
history, be endless praise, for ever and ever. Amen.

***

Something unusual did just happen. I know that (I was there). I will return to it. But first… first, not the Magi (sorry), and no sweets to throw at you in honour of the Kings (double sorry). First, Father Ted! Not the Christmas special, A Christmassy Ted, which we’ve all had chance to see 150 times over recent days, on one channel or another. I’m referring to another episode, when a singer-songwriter, not so loosely based on Sinead O’Connor comes to Craggy Island. In amongst all the characters’ high jinks, the singer is very critical of the Church. This in turn provokes from Fr Dougal the response: "Sure, she's taking all this Catholic stuff terribly seriously. Doesn't she know it's just a bit of fun?"

All this Catholic stuff - just a bit of fun. What do you think?

I'd say it's wrong, but... But it has a certain rightness to it, too!

I mean I think it is not wrong to expect - or at least hope - that Church is fun. Not only fun, sure. But fun is about as good a place to start as any. Coming to Church is something most Christians do with their "leisure time" (let's be honest), and the experience should be satisfying and rewarding and rich and sensual and involving - and so fun. We can dress up this point by saying pompously “the Church should be a good patron of the arts" if we want. But maybe that’s just a variation on the same theme.

At this time in the life of this Church - and in this very service - we are developing some additions, and introducing new ones. Fr Lee, as today's president, will lead us later in the service into the Rite of the Blessing of the Chalk (which, you may remember, we reintroduced last year). And - as perhaps again you can remember - I have chanted the Solemn Proclamation of the date of Easter. Another "special" something for Epiphany Sunday, for today.

You can tell us afterwards if either the chant or the chalk are in any way fun. But we in turn may remind you that nothing we do should be done solely because it is fun. Everything we do, whether or not it manages to be fun, should also be, well, yes, I am going to say… solemn. Solemn here does not mean dry or stilted or glum; it means “not trivial”, but showing forth something serious and deep and helpful to our lives as disciples of Christ.

The Solemn Proclamation of the Date of Easter. It is, I think, easy to see how this custom developed. I cannot tell you for sure when it began. But it long predates the time when most people had desk diaries, let alone gadgets beeping your appointments and your dairy at you seven times a minute. It dates from a time when you really needed someone to tell you when Easter was this year. But! But it is - evidently - something we can still do, even though we all know - or can find out - the date of Easter. Why? 

Again, it is not hard to say why. It is because Easter is so important to Christian faith. We can say that every day is Easter. We can say this because we read - we hear - the whole story of Jesus and the whole story of the Bible in the light of the resurrection. Including of course the story of the coming of the Magi, which we always have at the beginning of the year. It is because Gd raised Jesus from the dead by the Spirit that we have hope, and we read all the Bible as hope-filled, because the whole story is bathed in the light of that rising from the dead, that forgiveness, that hope, that Light, that Life. 

In other words, we can revisit our old friend, St Seraphim of Sarov. Remember him? I hope so. He it was who would greet everyone, in season and out of season, 365.25 days a year, by saying: "Christ is risen!" Remember that during the fast of Good Friday, he'd stand on the steps of the church, munching away, and declaiming, "Christ is risen!". Remember that if anyone came to see him, he'd say: "My joy! Christ is risen!" Because, if the Christian account of things is true at all, then every moment, and every encounter, is Easter. 

This does not mean that the Christian story is all light and no shade, all celebration and no tears, all triumph and no failure. It does not mean there is no death. We know that. But it does mean that the whole, the entirely, has a heart, has a core. And that core is the Easter story. So let us hear again the solemn proclamation of the date of Easter, this year of our Lord, 2020.

Just one little note of explanation. It is possible that the words “the Easter Triduum” sound just too churchy by half. They just mean the "Three Days of Easter". That in turn means the services on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and the Easter Vigil which we keep on the evening of the Saturday. Does that in turn mean that the Saturday service is more important than the Easter Sunday service? Bluntly, yes.

It is, at it were, the “Midnight Mass” of Easter. It is the time we all become St Seraphim together, when we solemnly proclaim: "Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!" And we can sing or hear a hymn of praise to the Easter candle, lit from the Easter fire. And the tune of that hymn is… echoed in today’s Proclamation. If we chant, it is not only for fun, but also for solemnity, for teaching, for reinforcement.

Is there here already a subtle encouragement to take part in the services from Maundy Thursday to the Easter Vigil, as one entity? Why, yes there is! Try them. You may even find them to be fun!

***

[Said]

Dear brothers and sisters, the glory of the Lord has shone upon us,
and shall ever be manifest among us, until the day of his return.

Through the rhythms of the times and the seasons

let us celebrate the mysteries of salvation.

Let us call to mind the new year's culmination,

the Easter Triduum of the Lord:

his last supper, his crucifixion, his burial, and his rising

celebrated between the evening of the Ninth day of April
and the evening of the Eleventh day of April,

Easter Sunday being on the Twelfth day of April.

Each Easter - as on each Sunday -
the Holy Church makes present the great and saving deed
by which Christ has for ever conquered sin and death.

From Easter are reckoned other days we keep holy…

Likewise, the pilgrim Church proclaims the Passover of Christ
in the feasts of the holy Mother of God,

in the feasts of the Apostles and Saints,
and in the commemoration of the faithful departed.

To Jesus Christ, who was, who is, and who is to come, Lord of time and
history, be endless praise, for ever and ever. Amen.