Fourth Sunday of Easter (Good Shepherd Sunday and Mother's Day 2022)

It is remarkable how much can change within a week. We should know this truth as Christians who have borne witness to the death and resurrection of the Lord, a truth which we still celebrate in this Easter season. Yet it can still be quite surprising to see this happen in real life. Standing up here last week, I did not imagine that I would return to this pulpit to declare that the mood against Christians has increased ten-fold within such a short span of time. And why has this happened? Why this increase in vitriol? You can probably guess, but it has to do with the leak from the Supreme Court over the potential of overturning Roe v Wade.

The amount of rage and anger that has exploded from liberals this week at the possibility that abortion will no longer be protected on a federal level has indeed been a marvel to behold. From politicians calling for impeachment of justices to the media types expressing anger at any barely to the right of them to numerous online people making threats and calling for riots and revolution, the anger has been beyond palpable. This last point about threats has been so great that many dioceses and parishes are on high alert due to threats of storming churches and protesting during Mass. It may feel like the situation we encounter in the first reading.

Paul and Barnabas are preaching  to both Jew and Gentile the Good News of Jesus, His resurrection, and His gift of salvation to all. Many received this news with joy and were converted, joining the Church in the way of Christ. But St. Luke writes how the disbelieving Jews worked up a persecution of Paul and Barnabas to get them expelled from the territory in which they worked. Yet the passage does not conclude with the disciples feeling bitter or angry, but overjoyed that they suffered for the name of Jesus. Why would they rejoice when people have risen up against them? They rejoice because they are the sheep of the flock of the Lamb who suffered the same anger and was killed because of it, yet rose from the dead in triumph against His enemies.

The way of the Christian is not one of ease and comfort, but one of struggle. Struggle against sin from within ourselves as well as from without. Struggle against the wiles of the devil who prowls about the world, seeking the ruin of souls. And struggle against a world that has always been against Christ and His Church. We should not be surprised that the rage of the world exists or that it increases; we should instead be surprised that we are still in an easy position to live our faith without earthly consequences.

There is no victory without struggle; there is no triumph without conflict; there is no winning without fighting. As much as it is true in every other realm, it is most true in the life of the Christian. We will be hated for saying that there is only one God, that Jesus is the Word incarnate who died and rose from the dead, and that there is one Church filled with the Holy Spirit through which we receive salvation. We will be mocked for rejecting the ways of the world which pursue lust, greed, and hatred in rejecting God in the multitude of manners we see today. We will be pressured to conform, to join in with the flock of Satan who gleefully give in to every form of sin so that they may be satiated here without knowing the consequences that will come when they plummet into eternal damnation.

Yet the Good Shepherd calls to us: the few who listen, the few who have the opportunity to hear, the few who have hearts open to hearing. While it is true that the Good News is meant for all, we know that so many reject it each day in favor of following the wicked pastors of this age. This is why we hear Jesus pray over the chalice, declaring it to be the Precious Blood spilled out “for many” instead of “for all”. Not all will conclude their lives being sheep in the one flock of the Redeemer, but will remain outside forever when the Shepherd returns to gather His flock for the last time.

This is the vision which St. John beholds in the second reading: the great multitude who are clothed in white and wave palm branches in honor of the true King of the universe. They have survived the “time of great distress” which is every age of persecution and wickedness brought upon faithful souls. Purified by the blood of the Lamb, they have entered into everlasting glory to be freed of sorrow-hence why the elder says that “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” This could only happen because they were the faithful sheep of the Good Shepherd, because they heard His voice and followed Him no matter the difficulties, because no one can take them from His hand.

But we should not act as if we have already obtained this victory in union with Christ. We are still here below, surrounded by enemies who hate us, who wish to corrupt us and our children, who even desire our deaths if it satisfies their lust for sin. We must be strengthened by the grace of eternal life given us by our Good Shepherd to fight for Him and win the victory over sin, over Satan, over all His enemies and ours. There can be no compromise for we are all ultimately sheep, sheep who need a pastor. Either we shall follow the Good Shepherd who leads us to eternal life, or we shall obey the wicked pastors who draw us away from God and plunge us into eternal perdition.

Brethren, heed the voice of the Good Shepherd calling you to follow Him. Do not be afraid to bear witness to your fellowship in the flock of Christ to all you meet, even to those who reject and despise Him. Pray for the grace to remain united with Him in times of trouble or tribulation, and be close to Him in the sacraments He gives us through His one Church. If you want an example of how to do so, look no further than she whom we crown this Sunday in our parish: the blessed Virgin Mary.

I call upon her in particular for the women of our parish, especially the young women who are still growing up. Do not look to the ways of the world, which tries to subvert femininity to make women to be nothing more than pleasure seekers and birthing objects. Look to Mary to find the true model of femininity and discipleship: not rejecting of life, but open to the God who is life and desires life for us. She is the most faithful follower of the Good Shepherd and we should learn by her example. May the holy Mother of God pray for all of us to be true sheep who belong to the Good Shepherd in this life of tribulation and distress so that, with the Shepherd who is also the Lamb victorious over all, we may remain in the flock which shall not perish but shall rejoice for ever. 

Pentecost

We conclude the Easter season today with the feast of Pentecost. While we spent forty days in penance during Lent, today marks the fiftieth day of the Easter celebration, reminding us that our joy in the victory which Jesus won in His Resurrection is greater than our sorrow over our sinfulness. In fact, the name Pentecost literally means fifty in Greek. It is this day in which God pours forth the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles to start the Church.

In the Old Testament, God commanded the Israelites to celebrate this day as a harvest festival and as a commemoration of the giving of the Law to Moses on Mount Sinai after God had freed the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. It is most appropriate, then, that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit occurs on this day, to remind us that it is by the Spirit of God that we have everything we possess: not just our salvation but the fundamentals of existence, such as food, clothing, shelter. God always acts with the Spirit: we should recall how Adam received the Spirit of life in the very beginning in order to live, or how the Spirit is called upon by the psalmist to renew the face of the earth. But what or who is the Holy Spirit?

Put simply, the Holy Spirit is the love between the Father and the Son. This love is so real, so tremendous between the two, that it is a divine Person, hence the Most Holy Trinity, which we will celebrate next Sunday. But this Person who is love does not remain only between the Father and the Son; He is sent down upon humanity to be the bond of love between God and man. It is in the Spirit that we are able to be united to Jesus Christ, as Saint Paul highlights in our second reading. It is through the Spirit that we are able to become holy, for only by His presence in us are we able to pray as we ought or to know what it means to be holy.

Above all, God sends forth His Spirit so as to renew the face of the earth. How does He do this? By His indwelling within our souls. God does not send the Spirit only on one occasion, but pours Him out upon us like water from a fountain. We are always in need of the rejuvenating graces and the ceaseless presence of the Holy Spirit to become holy, to be what we are supposed to be. We ought to make our own what the sequence for today’s feast beseeches of the Spirit: “Cleanse that which is unclean, water that which is dry, heal that which is wounded. Bend that which is inflexible, enflame that which is chilled, correct what goes astray.” Only in the Spirit can we be good, only in the Spirit can we be just, only in the Spirit can we be holy.

Let us beseech God on this day to pour out upon us once more His Holy Spirit so that we may be what we were created to be. Let us make our own those wondrous words, “Come Creator Spirit! Come from thy heavenly throne, and make our souls thine own!” Let us beg God to renew us by His Spirit so that we may be engulfed in the fire of His love, transformed from mediocrity into the saints we are supposed to be. Do not remain cold or lukewarm, but be stirred anew to live by the gifts of the Holy Spirit. May our parish truly be a temple of the Holy Spirit, where the fire of love burns day and night, the unquenchable fire that does not destroy but purifies and prepares all for the glories that await the faithful in the eternal splendor of Heaven.

Ascension Sunday

Each year, Holy Mother Church commands her pastors to bless a large candle at the Easter Vigil. This candle is then processed through the Church and placed in the sanctuary, where it burns at each Mass of Eastertide until today.  This Paschal candle is meant to be the symbol of the resurrected Christ, who is the Light of the World banishing the darkness of sin. This candle reminds us that He who once was dead lives once more and does not rest in the tomb, but remains close to His apostles, showing them His sacred wounds and further instructing them on the mission that He has given to them. But on this, the feast of the Ascension of our Lord into Heaven, Holy Church commands us to extinguish this candle so as to better awaken us to the reality of this feast: the reality that our Lord no longer physically remains on this earth, but has ascended to the right hand of the Father, as we profess in the Creed.

Yet we should not greet this moment with sorrow over our Lord’s Ascension, as if He is leaving us behind or abandoning us. For, on the contrary, the Psalmist tells us that “God ascends in jubilation, and the Lord ascends with the sound of the trumpet” (Ps 46:6). We are called to rejoice on this day, not to be sorrowful. We are to rejoice, for our God and King mounts His throne prepared for Him, to reign over His Kingdom. We are to rejoice, for our High Priest ascends to the altar of Heaven, where He who is ever-living makes a continual intercession for us before God (Hebrews 7:24-25). We are to rejoice, for the Lamb who was slain goes to prepare the wedding feast in which the faithful will be united with Himself at the end of days (Rev. 19:7-9).

We should not be sorrowful that He has left, because this world is not ready for Him to rule. Our Lord now possesses that glorified and incorruptible body which is promised to all on the last day, but this day has not yet come. Our world is still filled with corruption and sin, still remaining dark in many corners of the world, still blind to the true Light which burns without being extinguished. How can He remain here in that state of finality when the world remains incomplete? Our Lord ascends to Heaven so as to remind us that we are not meant for the world as it stands now, but for the glories that await in the world to come.

But whom are these glories meant for, if not for all of humanity? And how will all hear of these glories, if no one preaches them, if no one is sent out to preach? (Rom 10:14-15) This is why the last command given by Christ to His apostles is to “go out into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature”, waiting for the Holy Ghost to come so as to be His witnesses to the utmost parts of the earth (Mark 16:15; Acts 1:8). This is the mission of the Church, that mission which we must pray for, support, and do in our own lives, just as Jesus commanded His apostles before going to His seat at the right of the Father.

Let us then rejoice at this Mass today, that the Lord has risen on high and taken captivity captive (Ps 67:18). Let us pray to our Lord this day that He may be nearer to us not in His physical presence, but in His real presence in the Eucharist. Let us also pray for the fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit this Pentecost, that we may be strengthened and encouraged to proclaim the Gospel message to every creature. But let us also prepare ourselves for that day when He will return, as the angels promised. Let us be watchful and look to the East in eager expectation of our Lord coming as He left us, so as to subject all beneath His feet and to rule in that eternal Kingdom where all shall be gathered to Himself and share in His glory for ages upon ages.

Fifth Sunday of Easter - 100th Anniversary of Fatima

The place: Europe. The year: 1917. War has plagued the continent for over three years at this point. The ravages of trench warfare, poison gas, machine guns, and tanks never seems to end. But another war is brewing in Russia, where revolution will explode in October, killing the tsar and his family and leading to the rise of godless Communism. Everywhere it seems as if chaos and disorder rule the day. It is in the midst of this most depressing time that something incredible occurs in a small town in Portugal.

Three shepherd children are caring for their families’ flocks in the fields when they see a bright light. When their eyes adjust, they see a lady clothed in white. She asks them to join her in praying the Rosary. After the Rosary, she promises to visit them for four more months. Thus ended the first apparition of our Lady at Fatima in Portugal, which occurred one hundred years ago yesterday. In fact, Pope Francis has been in Fatima to celebrate the centenary of the apparitions, to honor everything that Mary did at Fatima, in particular her message. But what is her message?

Our Lady revealed to the children a few secrets. First, she showed them what hell is really like. The tortures and pain were so tremendous that one of the children remarked later on that the children were so scared by what they saw that only the assurance of Our Lady that she would take them to heaven calmed them down. The Virgin reminded them that this is what awaits sinners who do not repent and turn to Jesus. It is the ultimate fate for those who reject what Jesus declares in the Gospel today: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” There is no other way to follow to get to heaven except the way of Jesus; there is no other truth to believe except the truth that Jesus is Lord and King, victorious in His resurrection from the dead; and there is no life possible except life in Christ, animated by His grace and mercy to be the saints we were meant to be.

Not only did she reveal the truth about hell, but the Virgin Mary also predicted that another war would break out after the current war ended if men did not abandon their wicked ways. She also gave a prophecy of the Church in calamity, destruction seeming to occur everywhere. Yet, despite all of these terrifying visions and prophecies, the Lady ended all of this with a simple but hopeful promise: “In the end, my immaculate heart will triumph.” In truth, how can she not obtain the triumph? That heart has most completely and most willingly obeyed God from the very first moment she could act until now and until the end of time. How can Satan overcome a heart most united to God through her divine Son?

Indeed, the victory of Jesus Christ is shared by the Virgin Mary because she is the greatest of all disciples. She shows us how to follow Jesus the way; she shows how to adhere to Jesus the truth; and she is the best witness of how to live in Jesus our life. All of the saints put together cannot match her fidelity, her virtue, her purity, her sanctity. This is why we crown her as Queen - because God has already crowned her Queen of heaven and earth by her faithfulness to everything He commanded her to do.

Let us indeed crown our Lady today, but not only with a crown of flowers, but in our hearts and minds as our mother and our queen. Let us heed the warning that she gave at Fatima and still gives today: repent and believe in her Son. Convert, and be no longer the slaves of Satan, the pawns of a sinful world, but become the children of Mary, the brethren of Jesus. Let us do what she asks of us, so that we may join her and all the angels and saints in the Father’s house, where a place is prepared for all who adhere to Him who is the one way, the one truth, the one life.

Good Shepherd Sunday - First Communion

My dear children, today is indeed a special day. It is the first day that you will join us in receiving Holy Communion. You will approach to receive that most precious food that we can ever eat: the Most Holy Eucharist. You may be asking, “Why is this so important?” Hopefully, your teachers have helped you to understand the greatness and importance of what you are beginning to do today. You are not receiving any normal food, but you are receiving Jesus Christ Himself, who gives us His Body and Blood to be our spiritual food.

Why is it that Jesus does this? Why does He want us to eat His Flesh and drink His Blood? That is because Jesus wants to draw us closer to Himself. If we want to be near our parents, our friends, or anyone we care about, we move closer to them. But we can’t normally do this with someone who is so far away as to be incapable of touching. This is the great marvel of the Eucharist: although Jesus is very far away in Heaven, He comes near to us in the Eucharist, nearer than anyone else can be to us, because He is inside us whenever we eat the Eucharist.

And what does Jesus do while He is in the Eucharist? He tries to lead you to be good, to be holy, to be what you were created to be from the beginning. We call this day Good Shepherd Sunday, because we hear Jesus in the Gospel calling Himself by this title. A shepherd leads the sheep to where they can eat and be safe, and Jesus wants to do the same thing for us, we who are His sheep. In the Eucharist, we can hear Jesus tell us what it is that He knows is best for us, so that we may join Him completely in Heaven.

My dear children, rejoice that Jesus calls you to join the rest of us in receiving the gift of the Eucharist. Treasure this day as the day you began a new phase of your relationship with our Lord by the Holy Communion you are about to receive. Pray to Him today, and every day you receive Him, for everything you need to be holy, to be with Jesus in this life and the next. Ask Him, our Good Shepherd, to tell you your future so that you may live it out as best as you can. Let us not receive Communion lightly, but treasure each reception so that we may enjoy it here on earth, and rejoice completely in it in Heaven.

Third Sunday of Easter (OF)

Why is it that our Lord is not known at first by the disciples on the road to Emmaus? Did they not remember His face, His voice, His walk? How could they see Him and not know it was Jesus speaking to them, guiding them, encouraging them? Because they did not believe in Jesus as He really is. The faith of these two disciples was not in the God-man, but in a revolutionary, one who would restore the kingdom of Israel. They looked for the redemption of Israel from the rule of the Roman Empire, for God to elevate them to being the greatest power. But God did something far greater for them through Jesus, something which God had foretold throughout the centuries before the birth of Christ.

The great tragedy of many Catholics is that they don’t understand who Jesus is. We often try to paint Him as being close to what we are. If we are more liberal-minded, we see Jesus as the great revolutionary working to free the poor and liberate people from stuffy dogmas and doctrine. If we are conservative, we see Jesus as being more concerned with family values or human life or anything that is traditional and beneficial to human growth and prosperity. Yet Jesus cannot be painted into a corner; He is far more different than that.

This is the reason why the two disciples could not see Jesus when He was before them on that road: they were too enraptured in their particular understanding of Him. This is why Jesus almost seems to laugh as He exclaims His wonder that they do not realize who the Christ had to be and what He had to do. We can try to make Jesus be a guerilla fighter or a company man, but He is ultimately the Christ - the one anointed by God to be the Paschal lamb who takes away the sin of the world.

Do we see Jesus as He really is? Or do we keep Him in our nice, simple images that are rather comfortable to us? If Jesus does not challenge us, does not force us to reconsider our views or our ideas, is He really a good founder of a religion? Each Sunday, we gather together to do the same things these two disciples did: we break open the Scriptures to discover Jesus, we listen to the homily so that our hearts may burn as did the disciples’ hearts, and then we break the bread and discover once more Jesus really and truly present among us to be our spiritual food.

Brethren, let us humble ourselves as were the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Let us hear Jesus trying to reveal Himself to us through the sacred actions of the Church: the Scriptures, the preaching, the sacraments, in particular the Eucharist. Let our hearts burn with a desire to know Jesus, to love Him, and to serve Him in everything that we do. As we continue to rejoice in the victory that He won for us in His death and resurrection, let us not remain unaffected by what He did, but let our eyes be opened as were the two disciples so as to see Jesus for who He truly is: the savior of the world. May we receive this tremendous grace, so that we may progress more quickly on our own road, the road to eternal life.

Divine Mercy Sunday

As we bring the Octave of Easter to a close, we reflect on the great joy of the Resurrection which we have celebrated for the past seven days. We rejoice that Jesus is not dead, but that He is risen from the dead, victorious over all our enemies. But are we really joyful? Are we actually participating in that victory now? It’s easy to come and sing “Alleluia!” and rejoice that Jesus is no longer dead. But is he alive in our hearts as well?

Perhaps we know the story associated with why today is called Divine Mercy Sunday. A Polish nun named Maria Faustina recorded her visions of Jesus desiring that the world know His message of mercy, in particular on this day. This message, and the devotions and practices associated with it, spread in large part by the work of Pope St. John Paul II, who learned of this nun’s diary and message and spread it in everything he did. We all remember last year as the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy, called by Pope Francis to deepen our understanding of mercy and to receive it. But did anything change?

There seems to be two different mindsets in the modern marginal Catholic. The first is the presumption of mercy, in which it is known with absolute certainty that God has forgiven me, is forgiving me, and will forgive me. But this is not known through the frequent reception of the sacrament of mercy - the confessional. It is presumed that, since God is love, and God loves me, He’ll forgive me out of love. The other mindset is amnesia concerning divine justice. This idea goes something like this: since God is love, and God is merciful, He won’t judge me, He won’t condemn me to Hell. All I need to do is love Him a little, and everything is fine.

Brethren, I do not know where these ideas have come from, but they are both fundamentally misguided and dangerous to your eternal salvation. Perhaps it is from the chaos that has wrecked the Catholic world since the 1970s, not only as concerns the liturgy but catechesis concerning the divine mysteries. Either way, many of you live from false principles that lead to dangerous practices. God is indeed merciful, as the events of Holy Week demonstrate for us. Yet mercy without justice is a free pass to do whatever you want, and that is not what Jesus offers us from the Cross.

Why is it that Jesus endured the heart-wrenching sufferings of His Passion and Death? Why did the Father call Him to do this - to take on our flesh, to suffer, and to die? Why did all of this come to pass? So as to win for us the divine mercy we need to be reconciled to God. However, this is not a mercy that continually forgives while never asking anything from us. God pours out His mercy upon us so that we may be strengthened by Him to live our lives in faith and in justice. We see this in the first Christian community, as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. They abandoned their sinful ways and devoted themselves to the virtuous Christian life, being transformed by the mercy of God to be able to live upright and holy lives.

This is the great mercy Jesus shows to Thomas in the Gospel. Thomas is doubtful, wary of the arguments that Jesus has been raised from the dead. But Jesus comes to him on this day and reveals Himself, showing the wounds in His hands and feet, calling Thomas to put his hand in the open wound on His chest, from which poured forth the blood and water by which we receive the new birth, as St. Peter says in the second reading. Jesus comes to Him and offers Himself so that Thomas may not remain in a state of indifference or doubt. Jesus wants us to receive that same mercy, which He offers to us not in His physical presence before us, but in His real presence in the sacraments, especially the confessional and the Eucharist.

Brethren, do not remain obstinate in presumption or forgetfulness! God’s mercy is meant to transform us from lives of quiet desperation to lives of holiness and communion with God and with each other. Jesus wants to pour out His mercy upon the world so that we may indeed receive His peace, that same peace He offers the disciples each time He appears to them after the Resurrection. Receive His mercy, and become what the holy child of God you are meant to be. Do not merely rejoice at the Resurrection, but be transformed by this mystery so as to live your lives having faith not in your own abilities or actions, but in the mercy of God won for you in Christ Jesus. Do as Saint Peter tells you with whatever remains of your life: attain the goal of your faith - the salvation of your souls.

Easter Sunday

As the dust settles, as the light rises, as the people awake, this morning is different than any other morning. Normally when we wake up, we rise from sleep, from a state that does not persist. We are not meant to be asleep forever. But there is one who rises this morning who is not supposed to rise, not supposed to be awake at this hour. For death is supposed to be a persistent state, one that does not end, in fact, one that is the end for us all. Yet He is risen, and He will not enter that state ever again.

The prophet Isaiah proclaimed that one would come along who would become the suffering servant of the Lord, one who would “cast death down headlong for ever” (Is 25:8). Saint Paul would proclaim a few decades after this day, “O Death, where is your victory? O Death, where is your sting?” (1 Cor 15:55). For indeed, on this day Death is cast down, humbled in the face of the One who once died but now will die no more. Death has no claim over Him, but He has one claim over Death: victory.

He whom John the Baptist called the Lamb of God has been immolated upon the altar of the Cross. He whom Pilate cursed at when he mockingly asked, “What is truth?”, now stands outside the sepulcher as the complete Truth revealed by God. He whom the priests shamed as being incapable of saving Himself now towers over every enemy of God and man as the one who has saved all. He is the Paschal victim, the innocent lamb whose blood reconciles sinners to the Father, as that beautiful sequence proclaimed.

What more is there to say on this Easter day? Jesus Christ is risen, risen from death, from the bowels of Sheol, from Hell itself as we say in the Apostles’ Creed. He stands over Satan, over sin, and over death as the Victor. The bonds of slavery are broken; we are set free so that we may enter into the eternal Promised Land of God. Yet this victory, while already accomplished in Christ, is not yet completed in us.

Jesus Christ has brought about a new creation, but the former is still around us. And like bad yeast which corrupts the loaf, we too can be corrupted by this world of sin and death, returning to our former ways, losing that Promised Land forever. We are all free creatures; the eternal choice stands before us: Jesus and life, or sin and death. The struggle is real, but the victory is also real.

Rejoice, brethren, for this day is the day which the Lord has made! Rejoice, because Christ our light rises in the east! Let us turn and greet Him with the sacrifice of praise, turned together towards the risen Son. Cast off the shackles of sin and be free in Christ Jesus the Lord. Become the new dough that rises in this hungry world, the bread of sincerity and truth. Proclaim by your lives that you feast on the Paschal Lamb, that you are sustained by the meat of the Eucharist, and become what you receive. Be glad, brethren, for Jesus has won the victory. Let us follow Him so as to receive the reward of that victory, the fruits of his labor and ours: the eternal victory feast of Heaven.

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!