Homily Triduum Easter Vigil: Jesus the Light, Word, Water and Spirit, and Bread of the Resurrection

Homily for Easter Vigil Year C 2019 

Introduction 

Happy Easter! A few years ago, a priest-friend of mine, who had also been my student, called me to say that he had received a rather nasty email from a lady. 

"Dear Father," the email began.  "Why have you changed the Mass?  Last week I attended the vigil Mass at your church, but I could not recognize the Mass at all." 

Now my friend is the kind of priest who celebrates Mass by the book; I know that because I taught him to do it that way.  And so both he and I were confused by this allegation of changing the Mass of the Church. 

After some back and forth correspondence with the lady, he finally realized what had happened.  The Mass in question was the Easter Vigil Mass, which this lady was attending for the first time in her life.  And as you can see, this Mass has many special rituals, which we carry out only at this Mass and no other Mass. 

And so, to ward any potential angry emails from any of you, I would like to reflect briefly, on the special rituals of today's Mass. 

Scripture and Theology 

The Catholic Church has traditionally kept vigils for the more important feasts; in fact, that is why we also have vigils for the dead.  But today, the Easter Vigil, is called the mother of vigils, because we are keeping watch for the most important event of our salvation; the resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Tonight's vigil has four main parts, two of which we have already encountered: 

The first part is the service of Light, which some mischievous altar servers, not from here, but from a parish far far away once called "the barbeque service." 

• Thus we began by lighting and blessing the fire, a symbol of Christ setting our hearts on fire for him, so that we may desire the things of heaven. 
• We then lit the Paschal Candle and other candles, recalling the teaching of Jesus who said: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (Jn. 8:12). 
• Deacon Dean then beautifully sung the exsultet, an ancient song that praises God for what the light represents, God's saving work. 

In the second part of our celebration, we have heard the Word of God, a little differently than on Sunday.  Nine readings are provided, each of which is followed by a Psalm and a prayer.  But because I understand some of you left stuff in the oven, we only read five readings.  And why all these readings? 

When I was growing up in Uganda, we did not have electricity and so used candle light at night, just like tonight.  With only a little candle light, we could not do any reading.  But our mother could tell us stories.  We would sit down on the floor and she would tell us stories about leopards and the lions and my favourite the cunning tortoise beating the hare in a race.  Each story served to entertain us of course, but also to teach us a moral lesson.  She would also tell us folk tales explaining the important questions of creation, life and death.  She would tell us stories about our tribe, where we came from and how we travelled.  Some of these stories were frightening, others sad, but my mother would always end her stories with a happy story that would send us to bed happy. 

The many readings of today play a similar role for us who belong to the Christian tribe.  They tell us our story: where we have come from and where we are going.  Like any tribe or group of people, we need to know these things, and thankfully the Word of the Lord tells us the story.  This story is called by the rather fancy name of "salvation history," essentially how God has interacted with human beings from the very beginning until the coming of Christ. 

The seven Old Testament readings, three of which we heard, tell the story of creation, the calling of Abraham to be the Father of God's people, the freeing of the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt; we also heard from the prophets Isaiah, Baruch and Ezekiel, who tell us that even when the people of Israel continued to reject God's love, he did not give up on them, sending them prophets to convert them and promising them a Saviour.  Our epistle and the gospel confirmed those promises of Ezekiel, with God sending his son, to die for our sins, a son who God raised from the dead.  And as St. Paul assured us, we too shall now be raised from the dead. 

And so, once again, like my mother's stories, these two final readings provide us with a story of joy and they tell us where we are going.   We are given the assurance, that since we have died with Christ in baptism, we shall experience the same joy with him in his resurrection.  There is hope for us now; we are not damned to a meaningless life, both here and in the hereafter. 

And shortly after this homily, we will move to the third part of our Vigil, the liturgy of baptism.  During this part we shall celebrate the sacraments of baptism and confirmation for Scot.  The rest of us will also have the opportunity to renew our baptismal promises. 

While baptism can be celebrated on any day, it takes on a special meaning when celebrated at the Easter Vigil, with adults receiving all three sacraments of initiation: baptism, confirmation and holy communion.  For these sacraments and baptism especially are our way of tapping into the fruits of Jesus' death and resurrection.  St. Paul writing to the Romans put it best when he said: "Or are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life" (Rm. 6:3-4). 

Today Scot, like we were at our baptism, will be placed on the sure path of salvation, with his original and personal sins removed after his baptism, and a new life given to him.  This new life will be symbolised by the white garment and light given to him after baptism.  He will also receive the Holy Spirit, when he is confirmed by the anointing with chrism.  Now as a full member of the Church, he will also receive obligations to bring the gospel to others, particularly to his family and young children, both by Word and by example.  For what he and us have received through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we must share with others. 

Christian Life and Conclusion 

Our Mass will conclude with the fourth part, which is the usual Liturgy of the Eucharist.  At the end of it, Scot will now participate fully for the first time by receiving holy communion. 

Of course for the rest of us, the Eucharist is nothing but the celebration of the death and the resurrection of our Lord.  That is why right after consecration, we say: "We proclaim your death O Lord, we profess your resurrection, until you come again." 

And so, may rather unusualness of the four parts of our celebration, strengthen our faith in the resurrection, reminding us that: 

• Jesus is the Light that leads us to the resurrection 
• Jesus is the Word that teaches us about the resurrection 
• Jesus is the Water and Spirit, that washes away our sins and thus opens the possibility of the resurrection for us. 
• Jesus is the Bread of Life, that feeds us for eternal life. 

Happy Easter to you all.