PASCHAL VIGIL 2008

Matthew 18:1-10

Rejoice! Again I say, Rejoice!

Rejoice, the Lord is Risen! The Lord is truly risen.

Joy is the mark of the Christian, as our own Father Christian has so often reminded us and Joy is what I wish for you tonight. Joy is what I proclaim. Joy is what I offer you. Joy is what I give you.

But I do not give it on my own as from myself alone. Joy is what I have been empowered to give you as a minister of the Gospel. A deep-down freshness kind of Joy. A Joy that sinks to the roots of your being, not one that merely touches the surface. A Joy that Jesus says, “No one can take from you.”

This is the very Joy that Jesus himself gave to the two women in the Gospel we have just heard. Even though our translation of the event is couched in much more pedestrian terms, what we might be tempted to characterize as a rather insipid phrase. “Jesus greeted them.” Or “Jesus said: ‘Greetings!'”

No, my brothers and sisters, Jesus greeted them saying: Rejoice! Kairete! Have within you a Joy so deep that it overcomes all your fears, all your hesitations, all your anxieties, and all your dread.

Do not be afraid” Jesus added, but be filled with Joy, Great Joy. Let it control your heart; let it be what you constantly fall back on. Have that Joy in you that overcomes your ultimate fear, the fear of Death. “O Death, where is your victory? O Death, where is your sting?” I have overcome it. I stand here before you filled with new life, resurrected Life, not resuscitated life.

Isn't this what we heard Brother Ed proclaim to us at the beginning of this night's liturgy?

“Rejoice, O Mother Church, exalt in glory. The risen Savior shines upon you. Let this place resound with joy echoing the mighty song of all God's people.

And then we are to proclaim this Joy to others. First of all, most important of all, to each other. Note, here we are in a church that is the people of God. It doesn't have to come down from above. It was the women who were sent to the disciples, the women who stood by the cross when all the apostles scattered; the women who came to the tomb, not looking for the dead one, but for the one who had been crucified: Jesus. They are commissioned by Jesus to go and announce this Evangelium , this Good News to the apostles. So, too, we. We cannot just bask in the Light shining from the Paschal Candle, from the Risen Christ. Go forth. Proclaim.

We are empowered to proclaim this Joy to others.

And to proclaim the final part of the message: “Tell them they will see me in Galilee.”

What did the disciples do immediately after the arrest and crucifixion of Jesus? According to Matthew they went back home to Galilee. Jesus promised to meet them there, back in their own homes, back in their place of origin, back with their boats and their nets. This is where he would meet them.

And we? We have been living a more intense life during these forty days of Lent, during this Holy Week, and have hopefully been given more to prayer, to reading, to service for others. Something special has perhaps happened to us in this more intense rhythm? But now we return to Galilee, we return to our everyday life, to our duties on the farm or in the senior wing or the kitchen or the office. Or our retreatants return to their families and the workaday lives. It is to each one of us that Jesus says the same words we have just heard in the Gospel: “Go, tell my brothers and sisters that I have arisen and that I will meet them in their Galilees. There they will see me.”

Blessed Easter.

Amen.