At our Easter Vigil Mass tonight, Catholics throughout the world will celebrate this most holiest of nights in union with our Lord Jesus Christ and with all of our brothers and sisters in Christ throughout the world. Tonight, in a special way, the Church welcomes our newest members into the faith during this Mass; we all feel a great spiritual solidarity with them. We pray for them, and with them, as they consecrate their lives to Jesus Christ. It is a very holy and unifying experience for all of us. I myself entered the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil Mass in 1992 at St Norbert Catholic Church in Orange, California.
Our Easter Vigil Mass always takes place after nightfall. Our church lies in darkness and waiting. The light of Christ had gone out of the world in his death and darkness has covered all the earth. The Easter fire was lit outside of the church, representing Christ’s return from the tomb. Jesus Christ is the light that dispels the darkness of our world, symbolized by the new paschal candle that was lit for the first time. We entered the darkened, empty church. The light of Christ enters the church for the first time since Good Friday. It is Jesus Christ alone who dispels the darkness of our lives. All that we do, and all that we are, is nothing without him. Christ is the source of all the love, light, and goodness in our lives.
Our first reading tonight from the book of Exodus told us how God parted the Red Sea and led his people out of the bondage of slavery and sin in Egypt, into a new life to be lived in holiness and unity with him. The symbolism of this first reading is still true to us today, for all of us who have been baptized in Christ. Jesus led all of us out of sin, as in the waters of baptism our old life died and we rose in a new life in him.
Tonight, along with the women from Galilee who discover the empty tomb, we hear the witness of the resurrection from the Angel:“Do not be afraid!…You are seeking Jesus the crucified. He is not here…He is risen, just as he said." The birth, life, and death of Jesus Christ has no meaning without his resurrection from the dead. Jesus Christ broke through the barriers of our doubts and our fear of death when he was raised from the dead in the early hours of Easter morning. The stone that sealed the tomb of our Lord was merely a door through which he passed into eternal life. Death is but a door that we too shall pass through. Death does not the final say. Jesus Christ does.
Easter Resurrection is about power, liberation and freedom, but not the power of domination and control like we normally think of power here on earth. It is not about the power of a large corporation or bank. It is not about the power and control by military force. It is not the power of the media or political insiders. Rather, the message of the resurrection of Christ tonight in our Easter Vigil Mass is about the power of non-violence, the power of God’s generous love and our solidarity with God. It is the power that comes from a faith rooted in the great story of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. This great story of the liberation of Christ’s resurrection continues today in the midst of our human frailties and weaknesses. Christ is the light of the world. He is the light of the human race. He is our Easter joy.
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