The Easter Vigil in the Holy Night (B); 3-30-2024

8 Old Testament readings. Rom 6:3-11.  Mk 16:1-7

            Deacon Jim McFadden

            Tonight we celebrate with utter joy the Resurrection of Jesus, which confirms that Jesus is truly the Son of God, that his love for us has no limits, and that He is God among his people always.  Our faith hinges on this event.  As St. Paul reminds us, “…if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.  …More than that, we are the most pitiable of people” (1 Cor 15:13-15). 

            We’re here tonight because we just don’t believe in a doctrine, but that we experience Jesus is Alive—that he is Risen—which means that everything he said about himself is true.  That being the case our whole life is now about him.  As St. John Paul II said when he returned to his beloved Poland and proclaimed before a large crowd gathered in the plaza of Krakow, with all the communist leaders behind him:  “Man is incapable of truly understanding who he is without Jesus Christ.”  Without Jesus Christ, we cannot understand who we are, what our purpose in life is, and how we realize our destiny.  That is quite a statement.

            More to it, we experience the Risen Christ in community: while salvation is always personal, it is never individual  because Jesus is alive within his mystical Body, the Church.  In a few moments, our new Catholics will be baptized, confirmed in the Faith and fully received in the Church, and receive the Lord in the Eucharist.  We will pray for you—we will pray that you will be shining lights to the Good News that Jesus is Risen, that you won’t put a bush or a basket over the light of your faith, but that your peace and joy will shine before men.

            This whole process of proclaiming the Good News started auspiciously as the Gospel tells us that the women “were seized with trembling and amazement” (Mk 16:8).  Fear mingled with joy when they saw the great stone before the tomb rolled back and inside a young man in a white robe.  They wondered at his words: “Do not be afraid! You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified.  He is risen” (v. 6).  Then they were given a message, not just to them, but to us gathered tonight : “He is going ahead of you to Galilee, there you will see him” (v. 7).  That brothers and sisters is the Easter message.  Let us go to Galilee, where the Risen Lord has gone ahead of us.  But, what does THAT mean?

            First, to go to Galilee, means to begin anew.  Galilee is the place where the disciples first encountered Jesus, where the Lord sought them out and called them to follow him, which is exactly what happened with those who have experienced the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults.  Galilee is where they first encountered Jesus and began to fall in love with him.  From that moment, they left their nets behind and made that radical shift where their lives were no longer about themselves, but about the Lord Jesus.  Jesus is offering us a new life, despite all of our setbacks, failures, and disappointments.  From the rubble of our heart, God can prepare a new person, a new history.   Jesus is going before us and he invites us to begin anew and never lose hope.

Going to Galilee means setting out on new paths.  It’s like the Magi who returned to their home country by another route.  As Fulton J. Sheen commented on the three Kings of Epiphany: no one comes to Christ and goes back the same way he came!  That means if our Faith is going to remain alive, we have to leave our old wineskins, our self-referential way of living, and stay on the road to Galilee where we will have the humility to be surprised by God’s ways.  Jesus is not a memory, but he is alive here and now, who will never cease to amaze us as our sacred story unfolds on the way to Galilee.

Going to Galilee also means going to the peripheries. Galilee was an outpost, the farther reaches of Palestine occupied by the Romans.  Very far from the ritual purity and rabbinic schools of Jerusalem, that is where Jesus began his mission.  There he brought his message to those who were struggling to live day to day: the excluded, the vulnerable, the marginalized.  There he brought the face of God to those who were hurting.  Jesus tirelessly seeks out those who are discouraged or lost, and he touches them through his Church, the People of God.  In the eyes of Jesus, no one is insignificant, no one is excluded.  That’s why Jesus sends his disciples to go there even now: he is asking you tonight to go to Galilee, the real “Galilee” of daily life, the streets we travel every day where people are hurting and are in need.

Finally, the last message of Easter: Jesus, the Risen Lord, loves all of us without limits and he is loving us every moment of our existence.  Having overcome sin and Death, Jesus invites you everyday to participate in his grace, especially through the Sacraments, most importantly the Eucharist and Reconciliation.  Let us recognize Jesus here in our “Galilee”, in our everyday life.  With him, we will be changed, we will be transformed.  We will become, in the words of St. Irenaeus , “A human being fully alive, which gives glory to God.” 

Brothers and sisters, the Risen Christ always goes ahead of you; he always walks before you.  And with him, life always begins anew.  Amen.