Easter Vigil – Life on the Chrism Trail

Homily for Easter Sunday, the Resurrection of the Lord

At the Easter Vigil in the Holy Night of Easter

April 16, 2022
St. Patrick Cathedral
Fort Worth, TX

Genesis 1:1-2:2
Psalm 104:1-2, 5-6, 10, 12, 13-14, 24, 35
Exodus 14:15-15:1
Isaiah 55:1-11
Romans 6:3-11
Luke 24:1-12

The created light we read of in tonight’s reading from the Book of Genesis is good because God created it and separated it from the darkness. The subsequent lights that He creates separate the day from the night in governance and right order for the beauty and wisdom of His creation. Then, sin enters the world through human disobedience. Human beings through an abuse of free will attempt to blend light and darkness believing the lie of the serpent that seduces them with the falsehood that to be like unto God means to exert power and dominance arbitrarily over creation — that light and darkness are relatively the same thing.

Homily for Holy Saturday at the Easter Vigil

April 3, 2021
St. 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, 11-2, 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? But when they arrived, the soldiers were gone, and the stone was rolled away.