Finding Light in the Questions
Julián Carrón - During a meeting with students from schools in Monza, a girl said, “One day I arrived at class with a huge question about love. The teacher began reading a passage from Plato’s Symposium and a light bulb went off in my head: in those words, I found a clue to the answer to my problem.”
I was very struck by this comment because this girl was able to grasp the significance of what Plato says about love in the Symposium precisely because she had a vivid question, which helped her understand the value of what she read in Plato’s work. Without her question, the text would not have resonated with her so deeply.
Each of us will be able to perceive the value of what we are celebrating this evening to the extent that it reaches us with an awareness of urgency, need, desire, or question. No two years are the same. Therefore, each of us comes to the vigil with an awareness of a particularly pressing need. Realizing what urgency is boiling within us will allow every detail of the celebration to address our need.
The Easter Vigil is entirely designed to help each of us understand the meaning and relevance of what we celebrate in our lives. A few examples are enough for each of us to recognize how this celebration speaks to our own needs.
We began by lighting the fire. Those who arrived this evening feeling their own inner fire extinguished may have recognized in the sign of the fire the urgency to rekindle their desire. Life often becomes flat, and our inner fire goes out. We almost become accustomed to our decline, content to merely survive. “But this is life!” we say to ourselves, trying to convince ourselves.
Then we lit the candle, so that its light could confront the darkness that sometimes besieges our lives. Only those who arrived with an awareness of their own darkness can understand the meaning of the light of the Easter candle, which challenges all darkness. The light of the candle is not just a decorative ritual to make the celebration brighter: it is the sign of the light that entered the world forever on Easter night.
We heard that God created man in his own image; in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. Each of us was therefore created in his image. This is our condition, our unique greatness. No other creature has been made with such dignity. We can understand the importance of this statement because we always feel a sense of incompleteness. Precisely at this moment in history, when everything seems confused, our greatness emerges even more clearly: in the irreducibility we feel within ourselves, in the restlessness that never gives us peace.
We feel a thirst inside. What a shock it must have been for a thirsty person who arrived here tonight, hearing these words speak to their heart: “All you who are thirsty, come to the water; you who have no money, come, buy and eat; come, buy wine and milk without money and without paying for it. Why spend money on what does not satisfy?” (Isaiah 55:1-2).
Who can respond to the drama that each of us experiences? We all know the outcome of our attempts. None of them are capable of addressing our drama. That is why this night challenges our powerlessness. We can then understand the significance of what we heard in the Easter proclamation: “There is no advantage for us in being born if He had not redeemed us.”
What gratitude and wonder fill us when we realize, to the point of trembling, hearing: “O immensity of your love for us! O inestimable sign of goodness: to redeem the slave, you sacrificed your Son!”
What a surprise the women must have had when they arrived at the tomb, with no other purpose than to anoint the body of Jesus, and heard the angels say: “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, he is risen.” Here is the news that even they could not have imagined a moment before it happened. Since then, the proclamation of Easter speaks to our deepest need. Someone has conquered death and introduced into the world another possibility for addressing the urgent needs that weigh on every human being.
This event is not merely something that marked history, remaining only a devout memory in our minds. The event is much more than a simple historical watershed. If it were only that, it would not be significant enough to consider. It would not meet our true need for fulfillment; it would not be able to fill our emptiness, which would continue to dominate us.
The true novelty that his resurrection introduces is quite different. To say that he rose means that He Himself lives and, therefore, can speak to our need, respond to our thirst, fill our emptiness, and erase all darkness now.
Since Easter night, there is a fire that never goes out. It can therefore rekindle our desire again and again, so that we do not succumb to drifting. Any disappointment can be challenged by his living presence. “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the way, while he was explaining the Scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32), say the disciples of Emmaus.
Since Easter night, there is no darkness that the light cannot penetrate. It is up to each of us to welcome that light, which can defeat any darkness looming over us. All the darkness of the night is powerless against the light that shines from the candle. We are no longer alone with our darkness. The light of this candle challenges all darkness. But no one can replace us in letting Him in.
Since Easter night, there is no human longing, however great, that cannot find a presence capable of fulfilling it. It is precisely on this night that the true nature of each of us as human beings is revealed, to facilitate understanding of our greatness: “You show quite clearly the greatness you have wished to attribute to rational creatures; nothing less than You is enough for their blessed tranquility” (Augustine, Confessions, Book XIII, p. 453).
The answer to our greatness is only his living presence, unique and sufficient for it. And He is alive! The only one capable of responding to our thirst. The promise made to the Samaritan woman could not be fulfilled without his victory over death. Without his radiant presence, full of life, there would be no hope for our inability to give ourselves what our greatness needs to be fulfilled.
Easter is not a simple ritual commemoration or a pious devotion, but an event that affects all of reality and must be verified in daily experience through the continuous recognition of Christ’s presence. Without this verification, we cannot attain the certainty that Christ is truly risen and present, and that this is the only adequate response to the infinite desire of the human heart.
Unrevised notes and translation by the author. Easter Vigil, April 19, 2025.
