Our Easter Vigil Mass tonight is the highlight of our liturgical year. Catholics throughout the world gather to celebrate this most holy night in union with our Lord and with our brothers and sisters in Christ. We welcome our new members into the Catholic Church during Mass tonight. We feel a great sense of spiritual solidarity with those entering our Church tonight, a sense of love and gratitude. We pray for them and with them as they receive the sacraments and as they consecrate their lives to Jesus Christ. Tonight, we are called to participate in this holy and unifying experience in our Easter Vigil Mass.
Tonight’s Mass always takes place in the midst of the darkness of night. The light of Christ had gone out of the world with his death on the cross on Good Friday. We remained in darkness until the Easter fire was lit tonight, symbolizing Christ as the light of the world who rose from the tomb, dispelling the darkness of the world. Tonight, we celebrate Christ as the source of light, love, and goodness, as the source of our salvation and redemption.
In our first reading tonight from Exodus, God parts the Red Sea and leads his people out of bondage from slavery and sin. God liberates the Jewish people so that they can live with him in holiness and unity. Indeed, God liberates all of us who have been baptized in Christ. In the life giving Easter waters that we will bless tonight and that will be used in our baptisms throughout the Easter season, Jesus leads us out of sin into our new life with him.
In our reading from the prophet Baruch, we hear how God calls his people, how they answer him with understanding, “here we are!” The people shine with great joy for their creator. Those who will enter our Church this evening have answered God’s call. They come forward tonight to acknowledge him and to respond in faith. We the faithful celebrate with them tonight.
“Do not be amazed! You seek Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Behold the place where they laid him.” The angel proclaims these words to the women as they discover the empty tomb. Without the empty tomb, he would not be the son of the living God. Christ breaks through the barriers of our doubts and of our fear of death as he is raised from the dead on Easter. Death does not have the final say. Through the Easter mysteries that cry out to us, we are called to believe that he died for the forgiveness of our sins and rose to new life so that they we might have eternal life with him. Tonight, in the darkness of night, Christ is the life of the world. Christ is the light of the human race. Christ is our Easter joy.
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