May Jesus Christ be praised and may his holy Mother pray for
us.
There is something different about this particular Easter
Vigil. We will not celebrate the liturgy
of baptism tonight. We will not
celebrate the rite of reception into full communion with the Church. But we will renew our own baptismal
promises. I will not pour the water
tonight, but we will celebrate because the water of salvation has been poured
upon us. Though we will not see new life
in Christ begin this night, we will celebrate that Christ has made our lives
new.
Throughout the season of Lent we have been preparing for this
night. As we have traveled from the call
to conversion with the imposition of the ashes of repentance, and we have heard
of the mighty deeds of the Lord Jesus at the well, on the road, and at the tomb
of Lazarus, we have been preparing for this night. Tonight we have been preparing to renew the
promises of our baptism, because tonight, beginning with the creation of the
world, we have heard the story of the promises that God has made to us. This is the promise made to Noah and to
Abraham, to Moses and to David, to Isaiah and to Ezekiel. This is the promise that Mary Magdalene and
the holy women heard, as they stood in the empty tomb very early in the morning
on the first day of the week. He has
been raised. He has been raised. And we have been raised with him. The Father has fulfilled the promise that has
been made in his Son.
And so we will renew our promises. We will reject sin and Satan and all of his
empty works. We will profess our faith
in God the Father, in God the Son, and in God the Holy Spirit. We will be sprinkled with the water in
remembrance of the day when the water was poured upon us. And we will be fed with the Bread from Heaven
which gives us strength on our journey to Heaven.
We have heard the promise.
We will renew our promises. But
then, my dear brothers and sisters, we will be called to live as children of
the promise. We will be called to live
as witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We will be called to give testimony to our
faith and we will be called to give a defense for our hope. We may even be called to shed our blood for
our faith in Him who shed his blood for us.
Only a few days ago, in Kenya, the price of professing the
Christian faith was immediate death for one hundred and forty-eight
Christians. Nearly every day we hear of
the killing of our Christian brothers and sisters throughout the world. Nearly every day we hear of those who renew
the promises of their baptism in their own blood. There is a price to the promise that we make
and that we renew. There is a price,
dear brothers and sisters, and throughout the world each day Christians are
paying it.
But for us, we shall live our promise and we shall pay our
price here. Here in this parish, in this
community, and in each of our homes, we will live the promise. We will live in the hope and in the
overflowing joy of Mary Magdalene and the holy women. We will share the message, because we have
heard the promise. We will share the
message because God has kept his promise.
Jesus has been raised!
Alleluia! Amen.
Preached at Our lady of Lourdes
Catholic Church, Monroe, NC
