This page includes the homilies for Good Friday, the Easter Vigil, and Easter Day.
Lumen Christi!
"The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it. (Jn 1:5) This is how Saint John at the beginning of his Gospel describes the coming of the Lord into the world. Yet on this holy night we proclaim that the Light has conquered the darkness!
Last night at the Solemn Vigil, the deacon carried into a dark church, the Paschal Candle, the symbol of Christ, the Light of the world. It is placed here before us and will remain here throughout the fifty day Easter Season. The deacon then sang the Exsultet, the hymn of praise to Christ our Redeemer who has “called us out of darkness into his wonderful light.” (1 Pt 2:9) He sang out these rather strange words: "O felix culpa, O happy fault, O necessary sin of Adam that earned so great, so glorious a Redeemer! (Exsultet) So great is our joy and wonder at receiving the gift of salvation, that sin itself seems worthy of being a called a blessing!
What is darkness if not the symbol of sin and death? And what is light if not the symbol of life that conquers death? Easter celebrates this victory!
This morning we hear the account from St. John which proclaims that victory. Mary of Magdala discovers the unsealed, empty tomb and becomes the first evangelizer of the Gospel! St. Matthew relates that on Good Friday, “darkness came over the whole land,” (27: 45) Easter Sunday scatters that darkness with the splendor of Christ’s light.
Easter Sunday is called the “Solemnity of solemnities” and it is a day that all Christians gathered in the Lord’s House, renew their baptismal promises.
Consider the words of Saint Paul: “Are you unaware that we who were baptized in Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?...If then we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him.
Consequently, you too must think of yourselves as being dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus.” (Rom 6: 3-4, 8, 11)
In today’s epistle he says, “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with him in glory.” (Col 3:4) This is the light, the hope that sustains us through life!
May we never be afraid of that light! May we never hide from it! May we never allow it to dim or be extinguished. May the limitless splendor of Christ’s light—illumine with hope and peace our hearts and every corner of the earth! Amen! Alleluia!
O Jesus, at the foot of your Cross, I pause to reflect:
I have helped to make this cross by my sins.
Your infinite goodness that allows itself to be crucified without resistance is a mystery that is beyond my understanding and profoundly moves me.
Lord, you came into the world for me, to search me out,
to bring me to the embrace of the Father, the embrace that I need so much.
You are the Face of goodness and mercy and so you desire that I be saved.
Within me there is darkness—come with your clear light!
Within me there is so much selfishness—come with your boundless charity!
Within me there is so much pride—come with your extraordinary humility!
Lord, I am the sinner to saved—I am the prodigal son who must return!
Lord, grant me the gift of tears to rediscover the freedom, life, peace and joy
that is in You. Amen.