Homily for Easter Vigil

March 30, 2024
Saint Patrick Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas

Genesis 1:1-2:2
Psalm 104:1-2, 5-6, 10, 12, 13-14, 24, 35
Exodus 14:15-15:1
Exodus 15:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 17-18
Isaiah 54:5-14
Psalm 30:2, 4, 5-6, 11-12, 13
Romans 6:3-11
Mark 16:1-7

When the Sabbath was over, three women gathered the ingredients necessary to bury the body of Jesus. They went to the tomb early and thought of a few practical points they had overlooked. What about the heavy stone sealing the tomb? What about the guards? What about the official seals that had been put on the tomb?

The women had not been able to complete the anointings of Jesus’ body as part of the rite of burial because the Sabbath had begun shortly after Jesus’ death. Yet, the enemies of Jesus wanted to make sure that Jesus’ body was placed in a tomb and sealed tightly — confining Jesus to the past as a part of history that could no longer frustrate their plans. So, they chose an immense stone to block the tomb’s entrance with a guard so that Christ could be exiled to the past. But when they arrived, the soldiers were gone, and the stone was rolled away.

Mark does not tell us how they reacted to that … just that when they went inside, they were shocked. The tomb was empty except for a figure in white sitting to their right. The messenger felt their amazement, shock, and fear. He announced that the crucified Jesus of Nazareth was gone … not taken but raised and on the road to Galilee. He sent the women back to Peter and the disciples with the message to meet Jesus in Galilee where they had first met Him.

Likewise, throughout the last two thousand years and even today there are those who have made themselves enemies of Christ and His Gospel and to conceal Christ in the tomb behind such massive stones as cultural Marxism, hedonism, philosophical materialism, and cynicism.

Yet again tonight in the bright light of the Paschal candle, we see that the stone has been rolled away and is empty. No earthly force can keep Jesus in the tomb. Likewise, tonight, like that first Easter morning with the man robed in white, the white-robed figures of our newly baptized, confirmed, and fully initiated members, proclaim to us through their gift of faith the same and eternal good news, “Do not be amazed! You seek Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified. He has been raised; He is not here. Behold the place where they laid Him. But go and tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going before you to Galilee; there you will see Him, as He told you.’”