The Easter Vigil is the holiest night in all the year, and yet Christmas Eve seems to get all the attention. At Christmas Eve, so many people come to church that we have to three Masses. Tonight, our church is only 2/3 full. I imagine this is the case because of all the excitement of receiving gifts at Christmas. And, as you know, we exchange gifts at that time as a sign of the great gift we receive at Christmas – our Lord, Jesus. But, at Christmas, the full importance of that gift is still unknown; this isn’t revealed until Easter. At Christmas, our God is still wrapped in swaddling clothes; at Easter, he breaks the bonds of the cloths in which he had been buried and reveals his full glory. During the Easter Vigil, we receive what is perhaps the greatest gift of all – the forgiveness of our sins and the hope of eternal life. Yes, the empty tomb fills our hearts with faith in the risen Lord, and the hope that one day we, too, will rise from the dead.
This is also the night when the elect are baptized and candidates are received into full communion with the Church. They are welcomed into the faith in a grand liturgy that plays on themes of darkness, light and water to prepare them for the great gift of the sacraments. Tonight, we are privileged to have three among us baptized, four more, previously baptized in another church, welcomed into full communion in our Church and another, already baptized as a Catholic, receive the his last sacrament of initiation. They have or will soon receive our Lord’s forgiveness for the first time in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. All eight of them will receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit of God in the sacrament of Confirmation and be fully initiated into our faith community as they receive Holy Communion, most of them for the first time. Yes, there are a lot of sacramental gifts being received here tonight. And, all of us will renew our baptismal promises, recalling the time when we first received the gift of everlasting life!
In addition to being the holiest night of the year, the Easter Vigil is also the longest Mass of the year – that may also explain why there are so few here tonight. But it is with good reason that this celebration is so lengthy, as we hear Scriptures that retell all of Salvation History. And, we hear all of these readings because they tell us of our encounter with God from the moment of creation to the time of our salvation through his son, Jesus. In the Book of Genesis, we hear seven times “And God saw that it was good,” reminding us of the glory of God first found in nature and especially in humanity. In the Exodus reading, we hear about the Hebrew men, women and children cross the Red Sea on dry land, passing from slavery in Egypt to the land promised to their forefathers. Twelve hundred years before the baptism of Jesus, God is showing us that in the waters of baptism, we all can be free from slavery to sin, and through water, look to that day when we will know true freedom in the Promised Land of heaven.
In Ezekiel, we hear again the prominent theme of water and baptism, with God’s promise to sprinkle clean water upon us, to put a new heart within us, and a new spirit. The Letter of Paul to the Romans tells us that we who die with Christ in baptism will one day share with him in the newness of life.
In the Gospel, some women come to the empty tomb and become the first to be made aware of the Resurrection. They are instructed by the angels to go tell the disciples the good news. This is what we are all called to do when we have encountered the risen Lord: to go tell others that light has conquered darkness, and death becomes new life in Christ. Let the Lord call us – like he called his followers in his time and Joyce, Charles, Laurie, Shane, Christine, Emily, Joseph and Kenneth are being called this evening – to preach the Good News to the people we encounter in our daily lives.
In the darkness of this holy night, let the empty tomb fill our hearts with faith in the Resurrection, and let us accept and eagerly share the greatest of all gifts: God’s promise of eternal life for all who believe in his son, our risen Lord.