Holy Saturday Easter Vigil at HTC Tawau

HTC SOCCOM TEAM, TAWAU

Tawau : Msgr Nicholas Ong, the rector of Holy Trinity Church presided over the 8.00 pm Holy Saturday Easter Vigil Mass, yesterday 30th March 2013. More than 2,000 faithful attended the celebration with a spirit of joy. The three days, celebrating the death and resurrection of the Lord that make up the Triduum,  is but of one celebration. These are the most beautiful and wonderful gifts of the Church. 

The celebration of Easter begins with the Service of light. Msgr Ong in his homily said that Light in the New Testament symbolizes three things: (i) Light symbolizes faith as opposed to unbelief which is darkness. (ii) Light symbolizes life, contentment and happiness as opposed to death, misery and unhappiness which is darkness. (iii) Light symbolizes good as opposed to evil which is darkness.

He reiterated that the three themes are related, that is, with faith in God, we receive life, and the life from God is a life of goodness. Light will overcome darkness, faith will overcome unbelief, life will overcome death, and good will overcome evil. This is because Jesus Christ the Light of the World has overcome the devil, the darkness of the world.

God created the world out of love, but when we sinned God loved us even more. He became man to save us from sin, but when we crucified him on the cross he loved us even more. He died, rose from the dead and gave us the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will continue to love us until we love God, love our neighbor and love ourselves.

The readings tell us about the history of salvation. They enlighten us what God has done for us in the past and what God continues to do for us in the present in baptism. The reading from the letter to the Romans tells us that it is in baptism that we die and rise with Jesus Christ to the new life of Easter, never to die anymore and never to sin anymore.

The Gospel tells us about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In the Gospel the two angels told the women that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead. It is through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that the Holy Spirit is given to us so that we will die and rise with Jesus Christ to the new life of Easter.

After the blessing of water, together with all elects, we expressed our faith in the Risen Lord by renewing our baptismal promises. By answering 'I do' to the six questions, three rejecting Satan and more importantly, three professing our faith in God, our lives will be revolutionized. After which the elects were baptized, joined to Jesus in death so that we might walk in the newness of his life. This year around 90 candidates were initiated into the Catholic Church through the RCIA / RCIC process in Holy Trinity Parish.