{"id":1341,"date":"2014-04-20T06:05:37","date_gmt":"2014-04-20T10:05:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=1341"},"modified":"2014-04-20T06:05:37","modified_gmt":"2014-04-20T10:05:37","slug":"homily-easter-vigil-year-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/homily-easter-vigil-year-a\/","title":{"rendered":"Homily – Easter Vigil, Year A"},"content":{"rendered":"

Easter Vigil, Year A<\/a>
\nGenesis 1:1-2:2
\nGenesis 22:1-18
\nExodus 14:15-5:1
\nIsaiah 55:1-11
\nRomans 6:3-11
\nMatthew 28:1-10
\nApril 19, 2014<\/p>\n

Last Sunday we began Holy Week with the gospel proclaiming Jesus entering into Jerusalem.\u00a0 Thursday night we remembered how Jesus washed the feet of his disciples and gave us the Eucharist.\u00a0 Yesterday, we celebrated Jesus\u2019 Crucifixion but that seemed to end in death but now the tomb is empty.\u00a0 Jesus is risen!<\/p>\n

Given all that we have celebrated this week, one might think we could just pick up to start tonight\u2019s Mass where we left yesterday, with Jesus laid in the tomb.\u00a0 But we don\u2019t\u2026.<\/p>\n

Instead our readings go all the way back to creation, when there was nothing except God.<\/p>\n

Nothing\u2026<\/p>\n

We started our Mass tonight in darkness, like the darkness that existed before God created light.\u00a0 Without God there would be no light.<\/p>\n

Recognizing God as the source of light, we start with the blessing of the Easter fire, giving us light and we blessed our new Paschal candle.\u00a0 As we blessed the candle, the prayers described God as the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.\u00a0 God was there when creation happened and will be there at the end.\u00a0 Our Paschal Candle has the current year on it, reminding us that God is also present with us now.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Dan sang for us the Exsultet, telling Salvation History and tonight we have more readings than normal to include much of Salvation History.<\/p>\n

There is the Creation Story, telling us how God creates, not to provide a scientific explanation but to explain the divine order of things so there is meaning to creation.\u00a0 Big Bang and evolution do not provide meaning for life.<\/p>\n

Then we hear the story of Abraham and how his faith is so strong that he is willing to sacrifice his son.\u00a0 In the end he does not need to and God provides for the sacrifice to be made that day but we must see this as a foreshadowing of God making the ultimate sacrifice giving up his Son for us.<\/p>\n

Then comes the Exodus where God sets his people free from slavery in Egypt as they cross through the waters of the Red Sea.\u00a0 All this, as Isaiah says, without price or cost.\u00a0 Crossing the waters of the Red Sea, they entered into new life.\u00a0 Tonight we have six people who will enter into this new life through baptism.<\/p>\n

Much of this liturgy centers around our six to be baptized and the four who will complete their Christian Initiation with them but the Church invites us to see this as a reminder of our own baptism and what it means to die and rise with Christ.\u00a0 To do so we will all renew our own baptismal promises.<\/p>\n

At this point our readings bring us to Jesus\u2019 tomb.<\/p>\n

The tomb is empty!<\/p>\n

What does this mean?\u00a0 The angel tells the women that it is because Jesus is Risen!<\/p>\n

Yesterday, we celebrated Jesus\u2019 death.\u00a0 We don\u2019t normally celebrate <\/i>death.\u00a0 We normally see death as sorrow.\u00a0 In the case of Jesus\u2019 death, it came seem like utter defeat.\u00a0 That\u2019s why to understand Jesus\u2019 death, we must<\/i> know of his Resurrection.<\/p>\n

Death is not the end!<\/p>\n

Remember how Jesus healed people thought to be dead?<\/p>\n

Remember how he called Lazarus, after he had been dead for four days, forth from the tomb?<\/p>\n

Not even death has power over Jesus.\u00a0 In his death and Resurrection, Jesus shows us that there is so much more to life than what we see in this world.<\/p>\n

This changes everything.\u00a0 It should put a whole new focus on what it means to live.\u00a0 Material things are not important.\u00a0 God is!<\/p>\n

In our Easter Triduum we have much to celebrate, three days but all one event<\/i>.\u00a0 On Holy Thursday, Jesus gave us the Eucharist.\u00a0 Knowing he was going to be crucified he speaks of the Eucharist as his body and blood that are given up for us, giving up on the Cross, so the Eucharist forever celebrates the sacrifice of the Cross.\u00a0 Then we have Jesus\u2019 death and Resurrection.\u00a0 We need to both to make sense of either.<\/p>\n

So we celebrate!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Easter Vigil, Year A Genesis 1:1-2:2 Genesis 22:1-18 Exodus 14:15-5:1 Isaiah 55:1-11 Romans 6:3-11 Matthew 28:1-10 April 19, 2014 Last Sunday we began Holy Week with the gospel proclaiming Jesus entering into Jerusalem.\u00a0 Thursday night we remembered how Jesus washed the feet of his disciples and gave us the Eucharist.\u00a0 Yesterday, we celebrated Jesus\u2019 Crucifixion …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Homily – Easter Vigil, Year A’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[29,26,82],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-lD","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1341"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1341"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1342,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1341\/revisions\/1342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}