Homily for the Easter Vigil

April 19, 2025
St. Patrick Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas

Genesis 1:1-2:2
Psalm 33:4-5, 6-7, 12-13, 20 and 22
Exodus 14:15-15:1
Resp. Psalm-Exodus 15:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 17-18
Isaiah 55:1-11
Resp. Psalm-Isaiah 12:2-3, 4, 5-6
Romans 6:3-11
Alleluia with Psalm 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23
Luke 24:1-12

Since death entered the world through the disobedience of our first parents in the Garden of Eden, human beings have always struggled against death — seeking ways to prolong indefinitely duration of life if not completely cure death. An ancient Jewish legend tells the story that, in his final illness, Adam sent his son Seth together with Eve into the region that was formerly paradise to bring back the oil of mercy from the tree of life, so that he could be anointed with it and be healed. The myth continues that Seth and Eve went in search of the tree of life, and after an unsuccessful quest on their part, the Archangel Michael appeared to them and told them they would not obtain the oil of the tree of mercy and that Adam would have to die.

This myth articulates humanity’s horror at the inevitability of disease and death. Man’s resistance to dying becomes evident: somewhere — there must be some cure for death. As the religiously ambivalent twentieth century poet Dylan Thomas wrote,

Do not go gently into that good night
Old age should burn and rave at close of day
Rage, rage against the dying of the light

We can also recognize this same horror and rage against the acceptance of death in our contemporary society especially among the members of the elite class who place their hope in technology instead of God. Many of these corporate leaders have spent not an insignificant amount of money on developing areas like artificial intelligence and genetics to extend the duration of their lives and to stave off death.

At the heart of this drive is that they want everlasting life, but they also want their sin. They want to clutch their sin while grasping at life. They have a naïve hope in technology. Their attraction to technology is because technology will facilitate their sin and not only tolerate their sin. They fear facing God because God will neither facilitate nor tolerate their sin. They fear death and they fear God. Because of this, they do not understand mercy.

What would it really be like if they were to succeed in postponing death indefinitely contriving human beings’ ability to reach an age of hundreds of years? Would that be desirable? The ruling elite would become extraordinarily old, there would be no more room for youth or children. There would be no room for education, art, or culture. Capacity for ingenuity would die, and endless life would be no paradise, if anything it would become an ugly type of damnation.

Pope Benedict XVI once observed, “The true cure for death must be different. It cannot lead simply to an indefinite prolongation of this current life. It would have to transform our lives from within. It would need to create a new life within us, truly fit for eternity: it would need to transform us in such a way as not to come to an end with death, but only then to begin in fullness. What is new and exciting in the Christian message, in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, was and is that we are told: yes indeed, this cure for death, this true medicine of immortality, does exist.”

Tonight, you who are to be baptized will receive this true cure for death by your configuration to Christ crucified and risen. Through His death and Resurrection, Jesus Christ shows us that it is foolish to fear death and to fear God. We need not be afraid. Through His death and Resurrection, Christ not only liberates us from the fear of death but also from the fear of God. Christ reveals to us God’s mercy that enables us to live in His truth and love.

Baptism configures each of us to Christ, but for us to be fully conformed to Christ requires our cooperation and effort. It requires the ongoing cultivation of natural and supernatural virtues. It requires our renunciation of evil and the empty promises of the devil and carrying out that renunciation through prayer and works of justice, love, and mercy. Baptism is ordered to the sacraments of Confirmation and Eucharist that inspire us with the Holy Spirit’s gifts and nourish us with Christ’s own Body and Blood, soul and divinity. Each of us can only be conformed to Christ through our membership and participation in His Church.

There is a cure for death — or better said, there is a remedy for death. A cure for death is what the cult of technology desires and promises; in other words, they want the removal of death. Our Faith instead offers a remedy for death. Our Faith says that death need not be the end of human hoping, nor the beginning of an endless terror before a merciless divine judge. Rather, the remedy for death is configuration and conformity to Jesus Christ crucified. As Saint Paul writes, “For a dead person has been absolved from sin. If then, we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him. We know that Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more; death no longer has power over Him. As to His death, He died to sin once and for all; as to His life, He lives for God. Consequently, you too must think of yourselves as being dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus.”

You who have been baptized this night, join us already baptized as vines upon the life-giving branch of Christ. You have by grace what money cannot buy, what the world cannot give and what the world cannot take away. You have the morning star that never sets to guide all your days on this earth, and the promise of a share in Christ’s victory. Be with us now as we worship Christ, as we witness to Christ, and as we work for Christ.