Paschal Vigil 2009
April 11th, 2009
Genesis 1:1-2:2; Genesis 22:1-18; Exodus 14:15-15:1;
Ezekiel 36:16-28; Romans 6:3-11; Mark 16:1-7
“Do not be afraid. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified. He has been raised; he is not here.”
My brothers and sisters, Jesus has risen, the tomb could not hold the Lord of Life. Alleluia! Look at where we have been these last few days. We have walked with him on his grand entrance into Jerusalem waving our palms and singing our Hosannas. We have eaten with him the last meal before he suffered. We have been to Golgotha and stayed with him as he died. We have waited outside the tomb and wept and been quiet. And we have done all these things this year with special attention to his wounds, knowing beyond a doubt that in them we see God’s love revealed. We have entered into these wounds as into a hiding place, a place to keep us safe, to give us the security we search for in life. But it is not a false security, for our faith is founded on the rock which is Christ, crucified and risen. The Jesus we celebrate tonight is the Jesus who continues to bear these wounds for all eternity. Look at the main symbol of our Easter solemnity: the Paschal Candle. Embedded in it are the five large grains of incense that were put there with those powerful words: “By his holy and glorious wounds may Christ our Lord guard us and keep us. Amen.”
Why, my brothers and sisters, why does Jesus retain these wounds? Why would he not rise with his flesh fully restored and all deformity forever taken away? The long tradition of the Christian centuries has never held that the marks of the crown of thorns remain with him. The scars from the scourging are long gone; the exhaustion, the plucking of the beard, the bruises of his falls are cleansed away. But the five wounds remain: hands and feet and side. Why, my brothers and sisters, why?
Our reflections over these last seven days have given us glimpses of an answer. On Palm Sunday we reflected on the Psalm verse: “They tear holes in my hands and my feet,” and saw that Jesus redeemed us not as a warrior-king, but as a suffering servant. We learned then, and again more fully on Holy Thursday, that the Jesus we touch in the Eucharist is precisely Jesus in the very act of his self-gift. The bread is his body “given up for us”; the wine is his blood “which will be shed for us.” The salvation first sketched in the blood smeared on the doorposts of the Israelites’ houses is accomplished in the blood flowing from the wounds of Jesus’ hands and feet. On Good Friday we saw the church, the people of God, us who are here today, as being born from the wound in Jesus’ side. And with Saint Bernard we rejoiced in this wound as our doorway into the very heart of God; a God we experienced not as a cold and distant spirit, but a “God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.” His wounds, in the words of the antiphon we used throughout Lent, are the very wellsprings of salvation. This is why he keeps them for all eternity.
Tonight’s celebration makes clear another aspect of this great mystery. They are no longer a source of pain. They are no longer deformities. They are Jesus’ “holy and glorious” wounds. Jesus is risen. Jesus is alive with the life of God; resurrected life, not resuscitated life. Jesus is no longer in the tomb, as the angel told the women, but here with us tonight, in this church of Mepkin, as well as in countless churches throughout the world. He is present through the Word, through our very gathering as believers, through the priest, through the sacrament. And by his holy and glorious wounds he will continue to work our redemption for us.
How? Our font has been without water for three days. Earlier this evening it was filled with new water. Plunged into the water in a little while, the Paschal Candle, the symbol of the Risen one with those glorious wounds embedded in it, will stir those waters and make them holy. Renewing our baptismal promises we will be bathed anew in these saving waters, we will touch once more the wounds of Christ and sing and shout joyously: Springs of water bless the Lord, give him glory and praise forever!
My brothers and sisters, by touching the holy and glorious wounds of Christ this night of nights, we too, like the women in the Gospel, are called to go forth and proclaim his resurrection to others. Our world is in need of so much hope. Our world is in need of a perspective on life that is fresh and dynamic and alive. Let us drink deeply of the wellsprings of salvation that are given to us during this holy season, let us drink deeply of the wounds of Christ, and leave here this evening with renewed faith and love to share Christ’s victory with others and with our world.
Blessed Easter.
Amen.
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