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The Easter Cycle
is known as Alb Sunday, they appear for the first time without the baptismal robes. The Holy
Sacrifice of the Mass is celebrated in the church of St. Pancratius, the youthful martyr who
sealed his baptismal vows with his blood. Pancratius died at the age of fourteen years. Those
who gather in his church today see his image looking down at them from the walls of his church
and feel his spirit hovering over them. All those who have just received baptism, and we also,
should feel inspired to keep our baptismal vows as faithfully as Pancratius did his.
The Church addresses the neophytes today with motherly tenderness and thinks of them as
“newborn babes, desiring the rational milk” (Introit) of the Holy Eucharist, the fruit of the Holy
Sacrifice. This thirst is created in those who receive baptism, who long for the time of Mass that
they may participate in the sacrificial meal of Holy Communion. From their lips breaks forth
the song, “Rejoice to God our helper; sing aloud to the God of Jacob” (Introit). This should be
our song, too, on Alb Sunday, when we renew our baptismal vows. Today, full of joy, we gather
with the newly baptized and sing the Gloria: “Glory to God in the highest.”
In the Collect we pray that we may keep faithfully and seal with our lives what was wrought
in us by baptism and by Holy Communion. In baptism we received the gift of faith, of whose
power the Epistle reminds us today: “Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth
that Jesus is the Son of God?” We profess our faith in that doctrine when we receive baptism. We
also have the means of strengthening us in the faith and the help to overcome the most powerful
weapons of the enemy. We receive the strength to overcome the temptations which weaken and
crush other men. With St. Thomas the apostle we fall on our knees and confess Christ, “My Lord
and my God.” “Blessed are they that have not seen and have believed” (Gospel).
Having professed our faith in the Credo, we are ready for the Offertory procession and for the
act of sacrifice. We now approach the altar as the holy women approached the sepulcher on
Easter morning. We bring as our gift our hearts filled with love and faith. The angel greets us.
“He whom you seek is risen” (Offertory). In the Consecration of the Mass He will appear in
our midst as the living God. As an expression of our faith in Him we sing the Sanctus, greeting
Him as the Savior who comes in the name of the Lord.
As He greeted the apostles gathered in the upper room, He greets us now, “Peace be to you”
(Gospel). He shows us His hands and His feet. Joyfully we confess Him to be the risen Christ,
the source of all grace and all salvation. “My Lord and my God.” Full of faith we take Him in our
hands as our offering. At the altar we offer Him to God as our gift. “Through Him, and with Him,
and in Him is to Thee, O God, the Father Almighty, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, all honor and
glory.” Having become so perfectly united to Him, we may now pray with Him and through His
lips: “Our Father, who art in heaven. . . . Give us this day our daily bread” in Holy Communion.
In Holy Communion we touch the wounds of Christ with St. Thomas the apostle, and through
this contact we receive divine life in proportion to our faith. Thus is satisfied the yearning for the
rational milk, of which the Epistle speaks. With grateful hearts we answer the deacon’s Ite missa
est with a joyful Deo gratias: “Thanks be to God.” Blessed are they that believe.
Meditation
Yesterday the neophytes laid aside their white garments, and today they appear for the first time
in their ordinary clothes. They are now full-fledged Christians. Their last stational procession
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