The Exsultet – The Proclamation of Easter

During the Easer Vigil on Holy Saturday night, one of the unusual things that we do is to sing the long Proclamation of Easter. This long sung text often called The Exsultet a name which comes from its first word in Latin.  The word ‘exsultare’ in Latin means to rejoice or better even  to exult, to exult in the Resurrection. 

Its opening verses are:

“Rejoice, heavenly powers! Sing, choirs of angels! Exult all creation around God’s throne! Jesus Christ, our King, is risen! Sound the trumpet of salvation!

Rejoice, O earth in shining splendour, radiant in the brightness of your King! Christ has conquered! Glory fills you! Darkness vanishes forever!

Rejoice, O Mother Church! Exult in glory! The risen Saviour shines upon you!

Let this place resound with joy, echoing the mighty song of all God’s people!”

These words call upon all of creation to rejoice in the resurrection of the Lord.  It calls upon all the heavenly host to rejoice; it calls upon the earth itself to rejoice; it calls upon the Church to rejoice. 

This is a very poetic text but what it has to say is not just a matter of poetic excess.  It glories in the reality that the resurrection of Jesus is not just his resurrection but it is the beginning of the resurrection opened up to all human beings.  And not only that, this prayer is aware that the earth itself will be filled with the glory of the resurrection.  It is the beginning of the new creation, of the renewal of creation, of the completed creation.

The body of Jesus was nourished on the fruits of the earth just as ours are.  His body was made up of those things which are the results of our being nourished on the fruits of the earth.  The fruits of the earth become part of his bodily constitution.  And so in the resurrection, creation is taken beyond itself.  As the Exsultet says to all creation: “Glory fills you”!

By Fr Frank O’Loughlin