Easter Vigil

On this most holy night, I offer only a few brief words. We began our Lent in darkness - literal darkness, if you remember the storm and the power outage. We began tonight’s Mass in darkness. How great can that darkness seem! It seems that we will never overcome that darkness, whatever it is that obscures our souls, makes it impossible to overcome. But on this night, as the world seemingly grows darker, more united to the darkness, light comes once more.

Easter is the feast of the new creation, in which the old order is cast out and the new is illuminated. Jesus Christ, the Light of the world, rises from the dead and pierces the darkness of this night with the light of the Resurrection. The Exsultet emphasizes this when it quotes the Psalms to declare that, “The night shall be as bright as day, dazzling is the night for me, and full of gladness.” Indeed, this night radiates not only in the light of the Resurrection, but in the joy that should fill every Christian heart tonight, because the Lord is not dead - He lives!

Let us rejoice in this holy night, that Christ Jesus shines victorious over sin, over Satan, over death. Let us rejoice, also, with our newest members, who will die with Jesus in His passion and rise with Him on this night no longer members of this old creation, but incorporated into the new creation, which will find its completion not in this life, but in the life to come. Jesus is risen! Indeed, He is risen!