Easter Vigil in the Holy Night

At the end of this long day of waiting, we celebrate the mother of all liturgies, a true feast for the senses.  The church gathers in darkness and lights a new fire and a great candle that will make this night bright for us.  It is here that the scriptures intersect with our lives most powerfully.

We listen to our ancient scriptures: stories of creation, Abraham and Isaac, Moses and the crossing of the sea, poems of promise and rejoicing, and the story of the empty tomb.  We see, hear, taste, feel the newness of God in Jesus Christ, risen from the dead.  In the “mother of all liturgies” the past and present meet, death and life embrace and life is triumphant. 

As the crucified Jesus breaks through the bonds of death in glorious resurrection, he opens the gates of life for us too.  “I am the resurrection and the life.”  “I have come that they may have life and life in greater abundance.”  “I am the way: I am truth and life.”

This evening is the special time for our elect to be baptized and become fully members of our community in Christ.  It is a time of special joy for them and for us.  It is also a time for us to reflect on the meaning and the effectiveness of our own baptism in our lives right now.

Our baptism and confirmation and our sharing in the Eucharist are the signs of our participation in this outpouring of life and love which we celebrate this evening.  The going down into the water is our dying to the ways of sin and evil.  The coming out of the water is a rising to the life God wishes us to have and experience.

Our baptism and confirmation are an ongoing reality reflected in the way we live out the gospel from day to day.  So very soon we will renew our promises, renew our allegiance to Christ and the Christian community, which is his visible presence in the world. 

Yes, we suffer the pain of a broken world, of dashed expectations and seeming hopelessness.  But the Resurrection tells us that suffering is never the last word, that God is always a God of surprises and that nothing is impossible with our God.  For Christ is risen, Christ is alive, and Christ is active in our world.  Alleluia!

Paul A. Magnano

Pastor