His Victory

Easter Sunday

During the Night

The Easter Vigil

Rosary Monastery, St. Ann’s

23 April 2011

Romans 6:3-11

Matthew 28:1-10

          “And there, coming to meet them, was Jesus.”

I can remember as a young man in seminary, 22 or 23 years old, being very much perplexed by the insistence of one of my scripture professors hammering home again and again in class that the appearances of the Risen Christ were more important than the fact that the women and Peter and John saw the empty tomb early in the morning on Easter Sunday, saw and believed… I never really understood his insistence.

I guess it must have been one of those academic/professorial things, like dissecting frogs in biology class. There are certainly lessons to be learned from looking at the parts, but a frog is a frog when it’s alive and hopping around with all of its parts. Any child could tell you that the empty tomb was a great surprise and terribly important, but the whole message comes through as we have it from the Gospel: “And there, coming to meet them, was Jesus.” Empty Tomb and Risen Christ: no child would ever separate them; together they tell the story; together they make that good news which is more than just one alleluia worth.

          Sadly, we really can, just like the absent minded professor of the comedy, get out of touch or miss the bigger picture of things. Our Lenten penance and our meditation on the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ in this Holy Week are meant to bring us to the joy of this night, to the tenuous light of the Easter candle, to the simple but oh so profound joy, exultation really, of learning that the tomb is empty “And there, coming to meet them, was Jesus.”

          The strife is ore, the battle done, now is the victor’s triumph won…. Alleluia, as the old Easter hymn goes. Easter must be seen for what it is in all its glory: more than a remembrance or recalling, Easter is an actual victory and victory celebration. Easter is now and it is everything, because in the Resurrection of Jesus the whole scene changes, the script for the play of humanity is definitively rewritten, not so much for the sake of a new and happy ending, but as a launch into that which is beyond time.

          The world around us is way too much here and now. Maybe that’s why in terms of sentiment even for Christians (and I say this sadly), maybe that’s why even for Christians Easter takes a sentimental second place to Christmas and the Baby in the manger. Our faith in the Son of God become man like us in all things but sin, offered up upon the Cross for our salvation, risen gloriously on the third day, breaking the bonds of Hell, this is our faith! It is anything but everyday, anything but a recipe for healthy and happy living. The world, the universe, everything but everything is changed because Jesus has won for us the victory over sin and death. Alleluia, He is Risen as He said! Alleluia!

Easter Monday

Opening of the Provincial Assembly
of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny
Easter Monday, 24 March 2008,
Emmaus Centre, Torrecilla, Arima

In the Opening Prayer of this Easter Monday we find a really great prayer intention. Just a few moments ago we prayed: “Help us put into action in our lives the baptism we have received with faith.” As women religious, you know that your baptism finds its perfection in your religious consecration. The prayer intention, if you will, takes on deeper meaning in your lives by reason of your vows. And so with fervor we pray: “Help us put into action in our lives the baptism we have received with faith.”

The first reading today from the Acts of the Apostles is St. Peter’s big Pentecost witness which centers on King David’s prophecy that his descendant, namely Jesus, would not experience the corruption of the grave. The reading from Matthew’s Gospel for today partly overlaps and then sets forth the Gospel reading for this year from the Easter Vigil. We hear again that the first witnesses of the Resurrection were the women. They first discovered the Empty Tomb. They first encountered Jesus, the Risen One, Himself. They bowed down and clasped His Feet.

Regardless of what you, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny, have for specific points on the agenda of your Provincial Assembly, which opens with this Holy Mass, such gatherings by their very nature have their meditative or reflective moments. Willed or not, we find ourselves looking around and taking stock of the family, of the other sisters younger and older yes, but also of your “together” as it presents itself at this moment in time. Where do we go from here? How are we doing? What more can we do? All kinds of hopes, really, fill the thoughts of those who are vowed to the apostolate.

At this particular moment and considering the situation in which our region here finds itself, there probably would be no greater gift that you sisters could give as a gift to our world either as a province or individually than to make the witness of those women, the first witnesses to the Resurrection, make that same witness actual in our day and time. I hope you will accept it from me, when I tell you that this is the optimal moment for each and every one of you, regardless of any other factors, to repeat the Easter experience of those women in the hostile environment of our day and time where once again as at the moment of Resurrection the powers that be hunch their backs and find other explanations for the Empty Tomb. Easter is your time and the Easter Proclamation is at the heart of your calling. Consecrated life and Easter Glory belong together as much or more than the vowed life and Lenten penance do.

Yours is the chance, in a very contrary and confused world, to say as those women did to all who are waiting for any news whatever and even to those with no particular expectations, “Be off and be on your way to Galilee where you will see Him!” Not the commander, not the soldier, but the witness rules the day.

The history of your Congregation’s work in this region can in part be summed up in all you have done to empower women. Yours is truly a success story. In all of that, the unreflective soul might have missed the point that the key or cornerstone to your contribution has always been your witness, your excitement over having encountered the Risen One. Back to basics, as they say, or concentrating on essentials is never a bad program – it works for getting sports teams back on their game; it works in life; it is Lent and Easter; it is baptismal renewal.

Alleluia! He is Risen as He said and will meet you in Galilee! Sisters, be on your way as witnesses! Do the Savior’s bidding as He stands before you in glory! Proclaim His victory over sin and death! Urge others to be on the way to His encounter!

Our Hope in His Victory

Easter Vigil 2007
Rosary Monastery
St. Ann’s, Port of Spain

Homily


At the risk of provoking a puzzled look or two, I’m going to state that our whole life as Christians is one big, long Easter Vigil. Not only is the Easter Vigil the mother of all vigils, the night of nights, it is a metaphor for the way we live out our Baptism in the course of the years granted to us on this earth. Alleluia.
What is the Easter Vigil in a few words? What is our life as baptized Christians in a few words? It’s about remembering or recalling how God saved His people throughout history and about how in the fullness of time He sent his own Son to be our Redeemer. It’s about our hope and prayer that God (through this Easter celebration / through our living out of the grace of our baptism day by day, year for year) may bring to perfection the saving work He has begun in us by water and the Holy Spirit. “He is risen and He has appeared to Simon!” Our hope for this life and for the next is in His victory over sin and death. Nothing else really matters. Alleluia!
After lighting our Easter candle, we spent time this evening with the Scriptures, now we’ll renew the promises of our Baptism, and then we will celebrate in the Holy Eucharist the central mystery of our faith. This is our vigil and this is our life. It reaches its high point not only at Easter, but every single Sunday, which as we know is “Resurrection Day”.
The early Christians suffered martyrdom rather than go without their Sunday Mass. Why has the first announcement of the Gospel generally been accompanied by persecution of Christian believers and their martyrdom? Because Satan doesn’t give in that easily; he’s not willing to turn over his control of people’s lives that easily. We are washed clean in the Blood of the Lamb. The Lamb was slain in mortal combat but lives forever victorious over sin and death, over Satan’s power. The strife is o’er the battle done… as the Easter hymn goes. Alleluia! We walk in the footsteps of Christ, we go to Him, and we identify with Him who suffered, died and was buried outside the walls, outside the vineyard. He rose victorious from the dead and vanquished the power of evil. Again: Alleluia.
I don’t know about you, but I have the worst time getting over or getting away from being curious about “how the other half lives”. By that I don’t mean the “rich and famous”, movie stars or politicians: most of their tragedies or insufficiencies are too evident and their choice of a certain life holds no attraction whatever for me. No, I tend to waste time wondering how certain good people in the world have failed to become Christians. It’s nothing more than a distraction, I know. Invariably however, I find out that such people are not truly happy. They don’t necessarily remain where they are because they think their life is the best or because they are satisfied. They content themselves rather with their life because they can’t imagine a better option. In some cases they live in fear of what might happen, if they let down their guard for a moment. It goes without saying that I could also describe a lot of baptized people as living that the same way, like pagans. Maybe (to refer to the famous quote from Mahatma Gandhi) that’s why some thoughtful people aren’t even attracted to us. For others the message of the Gospel is just too good to be true.
The Easter Vigil is a reminder, a pep talk for each and every one of us the baptized, encouraging us to stir up the flame of faith within us. We are called to set the world around us on fire with what seems to be the little light and warmth flickering from our candle of faith lit at Baptism.
It is no small task, but be of good courage. If you proclaim Jesus, True God and True Man, the Savior of the World who hung upon the wood of the Cross, our Light, the true light which comes into the world, if you proclaim Jesus, not by so much talk, but by the choices of your life, by your holy life, by your living out as best you can your vocation whatever it might be: husband and father, grandfather, mother and spouse, grandmother, widow or widower, single person, student, son or daughter, religious woman of the active or contemplative life, priest, papal nuncio. If you do so not only will you live happy, but you’ll join the fight to make up what is still lacking in the sufferings of Christ for the salvation of the world. You will be His Body.
I spent three years of my career in Jerusalem and I must say that one of the things which impressed me there were the pilgrims coming to Jerusalem from Ethiopia for Holy Week each year. I never talked to one of them that I can remember, but you’d see them about their devotions always dressed in white robes, baptismal garments. The white garment is a symbol of our having put on Christ in baptism. With the garment at our Baptism come the words of the priest exhorting us, exhorting parents and godparents to keep that life in Christ unstained.
A most blessed Easter to one and all!