The Sacred Triduum
On Holy Thursday the catechumens who were preparing to be baptized interrupted their fast and were able to go to the public baths to get ready for the Easter baptismal liturgy (Letter 54, 9).
On Good Friday the community celebrated “the passion of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, whose blood washed away our offenses” (Sermon 218, 1).
Easter Vigil: Vigil of Light, Mother of All Vigils
On Holy Saturday everyone, faithful and catechumens, fasted (Sermon 210, 1). At dusk the faithful lit their lamps for the solemn celebration of light, the Easter Vigil, “mother of all holy vigils, in which the whole world is awake” (Sermon 219).
In his homilies on Holy Saturday night, Augustine made reference to the basilica illuminated with the golden light of the oil lamps of the faithful, in reflecting on the light and the illumination that God gives to the hearts of believers, inviting them to come out of the darkness of sin:
May God, therefore, who commanded that light shine in the darkness, bring about within our hearts something similar to what we have done with our brightly burning lamps in this house of prayer (Sermon 223, 1).
As in our celebration of the Easter Vigil today, the liturgy of his time included the Scriptural readings that reviewed the history of salvation and God’s liberating power (Sermon 223ª, 1).
For Saint Augustine the Easter Vigil was a time for living out in a special way Christ’s commandment to watch and pray in order to avoid falling into temptation (Mt 26:41). The faithful had already been illuminated by the Risen Christ; hence, his invitation to continue their fight against the powers of evil and to live in the light:
Don’t leave any place for the devil, who attempts to get in wherever he can; rather let him live in your interior who by suffering for you cast out the devil. When the devil exercised his power over you, you were darkness; but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of the light. Stay awake in your mother light against the darkness and its powers, and pray to the Father of lights from the womb of your mother, Light (Sermon 222).
The Easter Vigil is the time to arise from among the dead to be illuminated by the light of Christ (Eph 5:14) and keep watch against evil:
—Get up, you who are asleep, and come out from among the dead, and Christ will give you light.
This voice wakes us up from the dream of this world, if we have listened to it and have arisen from among the dead, of whom it was said, “Let the dead bury their dead.” Meanwhile, let us celebrate this solemnity, keeping watch in the flesh, and, illuminated by Christ, let us keep constant and lasting watch in our hearts (Sermon 223, 1).
During the Easter Vigil, there were two particularly important moments: the solemn redditio symboli (the proclamation of the Creed by those who were going to be baptized), and the reception of the sacraments of baptism, confirmation, and eucharist.
Easter Sunday
Saint Augustine’s extant sermons on Easter Sunday are, on the one hand, an interesting testimony of the saint’s catechesis within the eucharistic celebration and a rich source of information about how the liturgy was celebrated in the early days of the Church. On the other hand, their brevity expresses how intense the celebration of the vigil had been and how tired it had left Saint Augustine:
Forgive me for not going on longer with this semon. You know how tired I am. The prayers of Saint Stephen made it possible for me to get through so many things yesterday, fasting without fainting, and to be able to talk to you today (Sermon 320).
Speaking about the days of Easter, Augustine emphasizes that they are days when we should not only sing Alleluia but should also live as new people who can sing Alleluia with our lives. And he stresses that the very act of singing Alleluia already gives us a foretaste, to some degree, of the eternal good gifts awaiting those who faithfully believe in God:
During these days, when we hear Alleluia, how our spirit is transformed! Isn’t it as though we already had a foretaste of that celestial city? If these days make us so happy, what will happen on that day when we hear: “Come, you blessed of my Father; receive the kingdom;” when all the saints are gathered together; when we see there those whom we did not know before and recognize those whom we did know before; where companionship will be such that we will never lose a friend or fear an enemy? And so, here we are, proclaiming Alleluia; It is good and joyful, full of happiness, pleasure, and sweetness (Sermon 229B, 2).
Easter Week
During the entire Octave of Easter, all the newly baptized in Hippo attended the catechesis offered by Saint Augustine every morning and afternoon. They dressed in white garments and wore a white veil on their heads (Sermon 376A, 1). They stopped wearing the white garments and veil at the end of the Easter Octave.
Saint Augustine dedicated time each morning and again in the afternoon to offer catechesis to those who had been baptized during the Easter Vigil and to the other faithful of Hippo.
Every morning there was a celebration of the Eucharistic Liturgy, in which the readings recounted the resurrection of Christ according to the different evangelists, since all of them help us to better understand the Paschal Mystery of Christ (Sermon 234, 1).
In the afternoons, beginning on Easter Sunday, Saint Augustine preached about different topics. One year he gave a series of sermons on the seven days of creation.
Easter Week in the year 407, from April 14 to 21, would live on for posterity in a special way, as the saint’s sermons during that week on the First Letter of the Apostle John would later come to form a complete work, the Treatise to the Parthians on the Letter of John. Augustine himself explained his reason for the happy choice of this text:
I have been thinking about what text from the Scriptures to consider with you this week, to the degree that God grants that I do so, a text in tune with the joy of these feasts, and one that I could finish commenting on within these seven or eight days. I decided on the [First] Letter of Saint John, … the principal reason being that this letter – so sweet for those whose heart has a healthy palate, in which the bread of God is tasted, and which is so revered in the Church of God – extols love above all (ep. Io. tr. prol.).
In other years Saint Augustine’s homilies during Easter Week provide us with a series of sublime and profound Christological images. For example, Christ is presented as a teaher who has made of his cross his professor’s chair (Sermon 234, 2); as a merchant who has brought to the world of death the novelty of eternal life (Sermon 233, 4); and as a physician whose blood is changed into medicine for his own assasins and whose wounds are changed into a balm for curing the wounds of disbelief in the hearts of his disciples (Sermon 229E, 2). The tree of the cross of Christ saves human beings from being dragged away by the current of time.