Easter Vigil, 2005

Only the Gospel of Matthew tells us that, on their way back to the city, the women who had discovered the empty tomb met the risen Jesus. Translations struggle with the text because of contradictory terms describing the feelings of the women. For Matthew’s gospel simply tells us that they meet Jesus “with fear and great joy.” But on this exceptional morning the two feelings might not have been truly contradictory, rather they spring from the same root: fear mingles with joy at the sight of the divine power manifesting itself in the Risen Jesus. The encounter with Jesus casts away the last traces of sadness and despair.

What happens to the women at their first encounter with Jesus should happen to us also. Our faith should embrace the feet of Jesus and receive his message: Do not be afraid! When we embrace the feet of Jesus, we commit ourselves to following in his footsteps.

We know about the power of evil in our own lives. Our sins have been many and manifold. Maybe we sinned like Judas -- out of jealousy or hurt pride or hostile feelings. Maybe we sinned like Peter -- out of cowardice. Maybe we were just part of a mob shouting “Crucify him!” because we wanted him out of our lives. Maybe we took the attitudes of Pilate -- took the sophisticated approach, despised the messianic dreams and took the position much aware that nobody knows the truth. There are many ways of selling out your conscience, despising each other or our selves, and silencing God in our lives. To all these many ways of sinning there corresponds one single road to reconciliation: being touched by God who gives us a new start, a new creation, channels to us the risen life that emanates from Jesus. All forgiveness flows from the body raised to new life on Easter Morning, this first building stone of a new creation, of a new humanity in which we are called to have a share.

It is most fitting, therefore, that Jesus greets us with the words:, ”Do not be afraid.” Four our culture defines itself by manifold anxieties. There are three basic fears that hold us in shackles. There is the fear of the unknown, the fear of failure, and the fear of death.

The fear of the unknown regards the future, the uncertainty of a world in which mankind has lost its faith in Providence. To conquer it we not only need the certainty that goodness will prevail over evil. We also need faith in Providence watching over out lives, we need unshakable confidence in the victory that Jesus obtained not by responding to evil with evil, but with mercy, kindness and forgiveness and thus becoming the foundation stone of a newborn humanity.

From the second fear, the fear of failure, there is no liberation if we rely on the self and remain mesmerized by the self and therefore discouraged by the evidences of our weakness and misery. Ultimately, this fear keeps us in a sate of low self-confidence, lack of self-esteem and brings us to the brink of despair as we are confronted with increasing demands of achievement and performance. But the risen Jesus reveals God’s infinite love for us. The evidence of this love must abolish every doubt about our own worth. And, the most deeply rooted fear, the fear of death, which is the ultimate root of all fears disappears only in the light of the risen Jesus who says, “I am the resurrection and the life, he who believes in me will not die but come to eternal life.”

If the message of the resurrection touches me at the core of my being, I will be able lift up my head, begin to trust and to rejoice. God is greater than the anxieties of my heart: the list of our sins is negligible in comparison to the list of his merciful wonders. My past does not matter; for there are new beginnings, new challenges, new invitations waiting for me, God leads me to the broad and wide meadows of his liberating will, of his assuring providence for us and the certainties of his promises.

Let us take along the message which the Lord leaves to the women: “Carry the good news to my brothers that they should go to Galilee where they will see me.”

There are two items of good news: First, we are his brothers! Second, we are about to see him!

Our brotherhood should put an end to our fear of uncertainties and failures. If we are his brothers and sisters, he will watch over us.

And if He wants us to see him then death will not come as a disaster, but as gate to everlasting life, a final victory over sin, a victory we experience in every act that reaches out and overcomes selfishness.

Let us make the journey to Galilee, to the homeland where we will see him. Let us live out the conviction that he is alive, let us make our way to the fullness of Easter joy, the new creation in which his reign is both perfect and unlimited. Amen.

Second, Jesus’ purpose in the Eucharist is to extend his presence and to make his life on earth not just disappear but to be sacrificed, reborn and become abundant both sacramentally and morally. The Eucharist, its vigor, its perpetuation, its presence in our churches, on our Sundays, in our weekly and daily lives has a dignity and importance unparalleled in the life of the church. When Jesus calls men to the priesthood, we cannot be uninterested spectators or maybe curious spectators, not even just sympathetic bystanders or wishful beneficiaries. In a Church that undergoes crisis, the extension and perpetuation – and renewal -- of the priesthood as the fountainhead of priestly ministry is a number one priority for all Catholics. Holy Thursday is a feast of the priesthood, should be a day of prayer for our priest and bishops, must be the day on which our care for Jesus’ testament and work on earth becomes supported by all of us. This should be a day on which we welcome and promote in thought, prayer, speech and action the growth of new, saintly life into the ministry of the priesthood, into putting into action the meaning and intention of the Last Supper. This is the day on which we ask the Lord: Give holy priestly lives to your Church. Amen.

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