Paschal Vigil 2024
Dear Brothers and Sisters, I would like to begin this homily by thanking you for your joining us for the celebration of this ‘night of nights’. We are all a bit tired, especially the monks who tend to go to bed rather early. But I hope we are all filled with gratitude and joy. A brother hermit has joined us for concelebration, bringing us the joy of the Franciscan family -and their pointed hood. Welcome Brother John! A brother deacon has come all the way from the Benedictine Abbey of Fontgombault in France. You heard him singing the Exultet beautifully. This ancient praise of the Paschal Candle is at the same time a deep theological reflexion, a sublime piece of Latin poetry, and not a slight musical feat. Thank you, Frère Louis-Maxence! Many guests from all over the world have joined us for these Paschal celebrations. Many thanks to you, dear readers, and to you, faithful servers!
We are all gathered together to celebrate our Christian birthday. For you know, of course, that we were all born tonight. When one of us, a son of man, was raised from the dead in the secret of this unfathomable night, the whole world was created anew and each of us was offered a new birth. A new fire and a new light have revealed to our eyes the mystery of our new life. The Word of God to which we have listened attentively has taught us the design of God, our Creator and Saviour. Jesus, the Word of God, has revealed to us the author of our birth, His Father and our Father. He created us in Adam. He fathered us in Abraham. He led us through the sea in Moses. He comforted us in the Prophets. He promised to us His salvation. He gave us the Law and He announced the gift of His Holy Spirit. He made a new and eternal covenant with us. He did not cease to give us life.
One of the ways the Father gives us life is, a bit unexpectedly, through death. The same one who called us to life put us to death in Isaac, drowned us in the Red Sea in Pharaoh, flooded the world in Noah, destroyed His temple and exiled His kings and His priests to Babylon. Finally, He died in Jesus on the Cross. For the Father could not but take on Himself, too, the death He willed His Son to suffer for our sake. Jesus gave us life by dying for us all, so that we, too, might die with Him so as to live with Him. In Him, death took on a new face. It became St Francis’ ‘Sister death’ which is the door to life and allows St Thérèse of Lisieux in turn to say: ‘I am not dying, I am entering life’.
Tonight, dear Brethren, we die, and we are born. Now, you could ask me: “Are these just symbols, images, metaphors? Are you just playing with words and images?” No, I assure you I am not. All this, our death and our life, that is to say, our human and divine identity as children of the Father, all this is real and true. This is true in Jesus and in us; first in Jesus, and then in us; first in Jesus’ body on the cross, in the tomb, and in the resurrection; then in us, through faith and holy baptism, through a Christian life lived according to the gospel, through a Christian death united with Jesus’, and, ultimately, through the hoped-for resurrection of our bodies at the end of time.
What we celebrate tonight is Jesus’ death and resurrection which is our death and our new birth in the Spirit. We say to Jesus the Yes of our faith, and we celebrate the union with Him which He sealed in His death and His resurrection. In our hearts, we sing to the Father the hymn of praise which St Paul intones to the Romans:
“8 35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
To the Father who loved us in His Son and gave us their Holy Spirit of love be glory for ever and ever. Amen. Alleluia.