Easter Vigil
April 8, 2023
Cathedral of Mary Our Queen
Gazing at the Stars
If you want to gaze at the stars, a brightly lit city is not the place to do so. The lights of the city seem to cancel out the lights in the sky, the moon and the stars. It is an artificial light, lights on which we depend, lights produced human genius, … lights that are many respects good. But however bright they may be, they pale in comparison to the sun, the moon, and the stars.
In ancient times, some thought of the moon and stars as divine. They worshipped them as gods, not with trust and love, but with fear. Ancient civilizations sought to appease them, in ways that were sometimes inhumane. Paradoxically, the sun, the moon, and the stars blinded them to a greater light.
We glimpsed at that greater light this night. From the new fire, symbol of God’s new creation, we lit the paschal candle, a pillar of fire shining forth in the darkness. As we entered the darkened cathedral, this light shone brightly. We heard the deacon chant, “Light of Christ”! In faith, we glimpsed at the One who is God from God and light from light, the True Light not even death could extinguish.
Lent as Illumination and Enlightenment
How is it that we see the True Light in a single candle glowing in the darkness? To grasp this mystery, let us turn to the experience of those who prepared for baptism during Lent. For them, and for us who are already baptized, Lent was a season of penitence but also a season of enlightenment, a time of grace to catch hold of the light of faith, a time to be enlightened by Christ. It is faith that opens our eyes to the true light. It is baptism that bathes our entire being in light. This night, as light from the paschal candle spread from person to person, we were gathered in by the Holy Spirit to bask in the true light, the glory of God shining on the face of the crucified and risen Savior.
With the light glowing on our faces, we sang of the Risen One in the Exultet, the Church’s hymn of love, adoration, and amazement to her Bridegroom. And then we settled in, so to speak, to listen to the Word of God, the Scriptures, which shed their light on God’s love in freely creating the world and redeeming it, from the dawn of creation to the present moment in which we are living. No, the sun, the moon, and the stars are not gods, but God’s good creation, and the human person is not merely the product of a blind evolutionary process, but the apex of God’s creation, made in his image and likeness, … created in freedom for friendship with the Creator, but also capable of rejecting that friendship – which indeed has happened repeatedly throughout human history.
Scripture neither despairs of human history nor negates authentic human progress. But it does open our eyes to God’s persistence in rescuing his good creation, and to his unquenchable desire to redeem humanity – each of us and all of us. In the Exodus of the Chosen People from the slavery of Egypt, we saw an image of our exodus from the slavery of sin to the promised land of freedom, our exodus from sin to grace, from darkness to glory, from death to life. Through the Old Testament prophets, the God who is shrouded in light revealed himself, again and again. Amid the turmoil of Israel’s history, the light grew progressively brighter, until the Son of God broke into our world by becoming one of us, he who, bearing our humanity, said, “I am the light of the world!”
Enlightened by faith, we heard St. Paul proclaim the Resurrection, and in the Gospel found ourselves stationed by the tomb as the Risen Lord emerged, still bearing the marks of the Cross on his hands, his feet, and his side, yet so resplendent as to defy description: This is our Redeemer! And despite the weakness of her members, the Church exists to spread the light of the Risen Christ across time and space, until he “comes again to judge the living and the dead.” Standing in the light of Christ, we proclaim: Life is stronger than death. Good is stronger than evil. Love is stronger than hate. Truth is stronger than lies.
The Bridge
But how is possible that we stand in the light of Christ? That we have contact with something which happened so long ago? Is it not because Christ, our Great High Priest, built a bridge, a bridge across time and history so that his light and life could reach us even now. This is what we celebrate in the Easter sacraments: in those who will be baptized tonight, in those who will be confirmed, and in those who, for the first time, will receive the Body and Blood of the Risen Lord. Just as the light from the Paschal Candle illuminated the darkened church as it spread from person to person, so too the light of Christ spreads as on this night many in the Archdiocese are baptized into the faith of the Church, a faith that hinges on the bodily resurrection of the Incarnate Son of God. The sacraments are bridges from Christ to us, they are conduits bearing his light and life into our souls, they are shining and effective signs of the One who is our light!
And what of us who are already baptized? Is this not a night for us to welcome the light into our hearts afresh? A night for our faith to be rekindled? A night for us to allow the light of Christ to overcome in us the darkness of sin? No one is to be excluded from the joy of this night of nights leading to the day of days.
Gathered around the table of the Lord, we shall share the banquet of his Sacrifice, there to receive the Body and Blood of the Risen Christ. In the immortal words of St. John Paul II, we shall digest the secret of the resurrection! Thanks to the Church’s sacraments, the faith can no longer remain as just an idea, but is rather a new principle of life, a new identity, “a new heart and a new spirit.” That is why, collectively and individually, we can say with one accord, “No longer I who live but Christ who lives in me!”
May each of you and all of you rejoice in the light of the Risen Lord! Alleluia!