This most holy night is truly about coming to discover new life. This new life is continuously brought to each of us when we are renewed through Christ, this new life will be discovered by each of these candidates who sit before me with the desire to be received into the Church and to finally be admitted to the reception of the sacraments, in each passing generation of the world this new life was discovered through the coming of the Messiah, and of course the hope of new life is always brought about when we realize that the cross was not the end, but instead was only the beginning. Tonight we join with these women who move towards the tomb of Christ. In their procession to this tomb they brought their fears of what would now happen with their life due to Christ's death, but instead of having their fears confirmed they were welcomed with the great hope that comes with the Resurrection. In our discovery of this great hope, this night, we to are welcomed with Christ's words of "Do not be afraid."
The liturgy of the Easter vigil is most special because it is filled with so many great symbols that draw our minds towards the mystery of Christ's Resurrection. The biggest of these symbols is that of darkness. We began our liturgy outside in total darkness and from there we entered into this dark Church. In total darkness one's ability to see is entirely stripped away. Of course this is difficult to happen in the middle of a city, but if you were to enter into a cave and turn off your flashlight, you would not even be able to see your hand before your eyes. The reality of sin does indeed effect the way that we are able to behold God. It darkens our ability to see to the point where it overcomes us so much that we walk about lost in the darkness. This darkness that fills this night enters into our life every single time when we are led into despair. Life is not always easy, we know this from the loss of a loved one, we know this through the hardship of a terminal disease, we know this when unfortunate situations arise in our own life.
Nevertheless, we cannot allow the darkness of sin and despair to consume us. We cannot allow the darkness to win because in all reality light will always overcome the darkness. That is why the fire outside of this Church shined so brightly so that it could consume this darkness and that is why the light of a candle processed into this dark Church so that it could banish the darkness from our midst. This light that consumes the darkness is indeed "the light of Christ." Sin and despair have no control over the light of Christ because it will always win. This light that springs forth from the reality of the Resurrection comforts us in the words of our Gospel: "Do not be afraid." Indeed we have nothing to fear because on this most holy night we come to encounter the true light that shines from the darkness of sin and hardship. With this great light that destroys the darkness we are given a great hope that even even in the darkest moments of our own life light will indeed begin to shine brightly.
Easter is about the hope of new life. This great hope will be illustrated to us later in this Mass when we will recall the fact that we have been baptized. It is here that water will be blessed and then we will eventually move onto renewing the promises that we made on the day of our baptism. Again with the presence of sin inside of our life we have failed to live up to the great obligation that was made on the day of our baptism. Nevertheless we must know and continue to renew these promises that we have committed ourselves to. These promises and thus the reality of baptism are made most important due to the light that shines within the darkness from the fact of Christ's Resurrection. This light confirms that we can indeed have the hope to move past our sinfulness and to eventually join Christ in the joys of everlasting life. The problem is that we do not always allow ourselves to be comforted and thus to trust in Christ's loving embrace of "do not be afraid."
Instead of trusting in these loving words we sometimes allow sin, despair, and hardship to speak louder. With this great Easter season, that we have entered into, may we conquer these many voices and instead of continuing to run away from Christ allow ourselves to be moved towards His loving embrace and His words of love. May we truly allow ourselves to find comfort, hope, and new life from these words and the loving embrace of our Saviour. Tonight it should be a great joy for each us as these five candidates present themselves here to enter into the life of Christ's Church. In their hearts they desire to be moved away from the many false voices of this world and instead to be greeted by Christ who says to each of them and also to us "do not be afraid." This is indeed a night of great joy because the darkness of sin cannot conquer the light of the Resurrection. This night we rejoice as we continue to discover new life through our separation from sin and our total commitment to Christ. May we indeed continue to banish this darkness from our midst and allow ourselves to trust unceasingly in Christ's words of "do not be afraid."
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