EASTER VIGIL 2009

“There is no need for alarm. You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was
crucified: he has risen, he is not here.”
Looking for Jesus of Nazareth: this is our life‟s work. He is not in the tomb,
among the dead. He is not some personage from history, who died long ago, of
whom we have nothing but a memory. No, he lives in history, in this present moment
and in every moment – past, present and future – that is eternally present to Him.
Most of us have been able to participate in the solemn commemorations of
Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday and Good Friday. Having entered into the mystery of
Jesus‟ death we are now able to appreciate the significance of his Resurrection.
Death for many is an end to things. If we simply had Our Lord‟s death on the Cross,
all we might be left with would be a helpless sense of remorse. “Look what our sins
have done. Look what cruel mankind did to its Creator and Lord.” It would be a
despairing faith, a vain faith. But when Our Lord rose from the dead, he rose never to
die again. As St Paul assures us: “Having died with Christ we shall return to life with
him: Christ, as we know, having been raised from the dead will never die again.”
“Having died with Christ:” this is what we did when we entered the waters of
baptism. As the flood waters at the time of Noah destroyed all that was evil and
preserved what was good for a new beginning, and as the waters of the sea
destroyed the Egyptians who were preventing the people of Israel from carrying out
their religious obligations and as the Israelites passed in safety through those same
waters, so we also pass in safety through baptism to a new life through conversion,
leaving a former life behind, dead, in the waters.
When an infant is baptised, the original sin of our first parents with which he
comes into the world is washed away and he is incorporated into the Body of Christ
which is the Church. Through the faith of the parents, the child is „looking for Jesus
of Nazareth‟ and a new life of grace begins in the soul of that child. When an adult is
baptised, he or she has gone through a process of conversion from a former way of
life to a new one. The convert who came „looking for Jesus of Nazareth‟ finds him,
not just in a book recording his life and teachings, a dead letter from the past, but
alive in his Church. The convert is impelled to seek entry into the Church.
But perhaps we should all consider ourselves converts. One person I read
about recently described herself as a „convert in need of conversion‟. On the one
hand there is always a need for continually renouncing Satan and the ways of sin as
we shall do shortly in the baptismal liturgy. There is also the need to rediscover in
ever new ways that „Jesus of Nazareth‟ is to be found in his Church today. A sign
that Jesus is alive today is how the Church continues to speak to the men and
women of today in the name of Christ.
In the account of creation we heard that “God created man in the image of
himself, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them.”
Only God can reveal to man his true nature for it is according to God‟s design, not
man‟s, that we are made, in our maleness and femaleness. Since he is the true Man,
Jesus shows us what it is to be truly human. When he rose from the dead, his body
wounded by our sins became gloriously transformed. Jesus‟ Resurrection makes
possible the restoration in us of the image of God in which we were all made. What
is broken and wounded in our lives can be made whole and healed.
In the Exodus reading, whereas the returning waters overwhelmed Pharaoh‟s
army, “the sons of Israel marched through the sea on dry ground, walls of water to
right and to left of them.” The faith of the people of Israel enabled them to pass
through those destructive waters which were held at bay by the power of God.
There are also destructive waters at work today, and we need to place our trust
in God that we may pass through them safely as through baptism. There is an
economic crisis provoked by human selfishness; an aggressive secularism that
wants to keep religion out of public life; that wants to weaken the ability of our
Catholic schools to teach authentic Catholic faith and morals; that wants to withdraw
from doctors, pharmacists and other health care professionals the right to refrain
from acting in ways that go against their consciences and the Natural Law; there are
powerful campaigns to corrupt our young people through the advertising and
promotion of behaviour that degrades them at the very core of their beings as male
and female and to withdraw from parents the ability to pass on their cherished faith
and moral teaching to their children. We just need to be attentive to ensure that our
young people – as well as the rest of us – pass safely through the challenges to our
faith that we face daily, that we keep them safe from all that is harmful to their fully
human wellbeing. The example of so many saints and martyrs who have gone before
us will inspire us to be on our guard and to place our trust in Christ who teaches us
how to bring out the truly human dimension of every aspect of human behaviour and
who leads us safely through those things that tempt us to left and to right off the
straight and narrow road.
“You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth.” You find him alive amongst his
people, the Christians who are brothers and sisters united in faith and sacraments
under his Vicar on earth, the Pope, who confirms us in our faith and leads us to the
fullness of truth and to the fullness of what it is to be human. Tonight a new little
member will be incorporated into Christ and his parents will guide him as he, like all
of us, continues to look for Jesus of Nazareth who is not among the dead but is truly
risen. Alleluia.