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          Some of you may be hoping for a short homily today. If all I said was  “Jesus has been raised from the dead” and then sat down, many of you may be very happy, and say Alleluia! and Thanks be to God!, but you don’t get off that easy! It is true that Jesus has been raised from the dead. It is an article of the faith and the anchor which holds together everything we believe. But to say he has been raised is to say something even more important- Jesus Christ is truly alive today!

          When we speak about Jesus and his life and ministry, we often use the past tense, “Jesus said, or Jesus did.” Those statements would be true, but not complete. Because we believe Jesus is raised from the dead, we can say without a doubt that Jesus says, and Jesus does, and Jesus loves.

          Jesus is a real, living, divine person today. He is not simply a historical person from the past that we remember. The resurrection is not something he did once upon a time. He is acting in the world today. He desires to act in and love each one of us right now. He comes to us and calls us by name and says, see my body wounded for your sins; see my risen body glorified for your salvation. See in me, the living God, all that you need in this life to have joy and meaning and hope in the midst of hardships.

          Some people thought in the past, and some still believe today that we make Jesus real. We believe in the resurrection because we want to, it is a creation of our mind. It is simply a delusion we came up with. Nothing could be further from the truth. In faith, we do not believe that we make Jesus real. It is just the opposite. Jesus risen from the dead makes us real. He gives us our true identity. He suffered and died for us so that in our suffering and death, he would be with us. He makes it possible for us to receive the inheritance that God the Father has desired to give all of his children- the gift of everlasting life!

          If we desire to take our life seriously, then we must take Jesus Christ seriously. One of the ways we testify to the importance of Jesus Christ is to renew our baptismal promises. In these we profess our faith in Jesus Christ. We also commit ourselves to a life lived in Christ by daily prayer, service to God and neighbor, and living a morally upright life in line with Gospel teaching.

          We profess that the Eucharist, the greatest of all God’s gifts to his people, is truly the living Body and Blood of the living Jesus! We do not just celebrate the resurrection today, but in a profoundly sacramental way, we receive the resurrection of Jesus today and every day that we eat his Body and drink his Blood. His reality is now our hope of bodily resurrection on the Last Day.

          We have so much to be thankful for today: The gift of new life, the gift of God’s wisdom to be a real witness to the living Jesus, the true outpouring of God’s love on each one of us by Jesus living in our midst. Let Jesus be someone with whom we share our lives with every day, as individuals and as a Church, because he is truly alive and wants to share his divine life and love with us.

               This evening we follow the Easter candle into the dark Church; it is a small, flickering flame that pierces the darkness of night. God created light before he created the world, but the sun rises and sets every day. Tonight the light we follow is not something created, but Jesus Christ himself. The darkness of evil and death tried to extinguish him, but it did not succeed. When the Exultet was sung, the deacon called upon the heavens, the earth and the whole Church to rejoice because with this Easter light, God will never let darkness cover the world again. 

          The readings we have heard proclaimed from Sacred Scripture give us one clear message: God is intimately involved in the world and in the life of every single person. God does not wait for things to happen, he makes them happen. God does not expect us to find him, he goes out in search of us. He expects us to love him because he has loved us first. On this holy night, we discover just how great this love is. 

          Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead! The cold, dark emptiness of death is defeated by the warm, bright fullness of divine grace. The death of the Son is not going to be the final word: the life of the resurrection is the final word! God has heard our cries. He has seen our sorrow. He has experienced our sufferings. The Father responds to the Son’s offering by physically raising him from the dead. By this action, the resurrection does not bring about an end as much as it institutes a new beginning. 

          Our Christian faith teaches us that life in Jesus Christ marks a new beginning, a new birth. Tonight we baptize catechumens who have been preparing for this moment, and we welcome into the fullness of the Catholic faith those who have already been baptized. Those who are baptized and received into the Church truly begin a new life. They do not complete a journey, but rather begin one fully with us. 

          The journey of faith has its ups and downs, joys and crosses. God has entrusted the Sacraments to the Church so that we may always remember that we are never alone. We are brothers and sisters in a community of faith and witnesses to the grace, love and mercy of Jesus’ resurrection. We are daily asked to lead a life of prayer, service and witness of the love of God to the world. 

          To those of us who are already members of the Church, we renew our baptismal promises, knowing that we have a long way to go in our faith lives. We will hold lighted candles in our hands, remembering our baptism and the comfort that faith brings in the midst of a troubled and confusing world. 

          On this night the Church tells us to rejoice. We rejoice in the light of the Easter candle,  because Christ has been raised from the dead to conquer sin and death. We rejoice that he has added to our numbers by calling these catechumens and candidates to faith. We rejoice in the Sacrament of Baptism which sanctifies us and the Holy Eucharist that feeds us. Finally, we rejoice because even though this world may seem dark, we know that the Light of Christ’s love, presence and power will never be extinguished.

          Today is a day of tragedy and triumph, surrender and victory. We often do not connect these two realities, but today they are one and the same. We live in a world where evil seems to prevail over good, division seems to prevail over unity and hatred seems to prevail over love. All of that changes today through the death of Jesus on the cross.

          The tragedy of Good Friday is that an innocent man has been given a death sentence because of our sins. Jesus is guilty of only one crime: He loves us. He came to announce the Kingdom and he showed us many times in the Gospel how the coming of the kingdom will offer us peace and joy beyond measure if we forgive one another and do the will of the Father. We looked at our sins and weaknesses and then we looked at Jesus. our response was simple:  Crucify Him! Nothing is more tragic than unrequited love and that is what Jesus suffers today.

         While the prophet Isaiah foretold that we would reject his love, Jesus still surrendered all of it to the Father for us so that even though we would reject it, we might come to embrace it through his sacrifice. Love always has hope. Love always forgives. Love always transforms.

          The perfect sacrifice of the Son of God shows its true power today. The power of sin and death is destroyed by the wood of the cross. The despair caused by injustice and division is healed by the death of the Son of God, who hangs on the cross between heaven and earth, uniting once again by this sacrifice God and the human race. The generosity of the Son of God who surrenders himself into our hands overcomes the selfish desires we have to hold on to everything, whatever the cost.

          We look to Jesus bruised, beaten and bloody. It is difficult for us to face this ugliness. He is alomst unrecognizable carrying the burden of our sins. Many people would prefer to ignore his death and just proceed to his resurrection, but we cannot have one without the other. We need to accept the responsibility for what we have done. We come and venerate his cross. We kiss the body of our crucified God and thank him for his love and mercy. We ask him never to abandon us.

          We know that in the midst of our sufering and pain, our doubts and fears that he is still with us. Jesus encourages us from the cross to embrace our suffering and not to run from our fears. He reminds us to pray daily for what we need to serve him in faith. Most of all, he encourages us to love as he loves, without considering the price.

          Like the repentant thief, we know that Jesus is innocent. We know that we are sinners. We ask only one thing from him today: Jesus remember me, when you come into your Kingdom. Remember me when I feel lost and alone. Remember me when I am overwhelmed and tempted to despair. Remember me when I am tempted to forget you. Then, after these words leave our lips, we hope with all our hearts that Jesus will hear our voice and say: Today you will be with me in paradise!

          When we spend time with the Lord, we usually are looking for answers. Why is the economy bad? How can I be a good example to my kids? Why can’t the reds get their act together? We know that Jesus has the answers because he is God. The problem is that when we deal with the Lord, as we see in the Gospels, instead of giving us answers, he asks us questions. This evening he asks us a very important question: Do you realize what I have done for you?

          In the Gospel, Jesus may have only been referring to the feet washing, but there is more to it than that. His question to us reaches to the very center of who we are and how we are to live. Do you realize what I have done for you? How do we answer such a question?

          The answer lies in the celebration of the Mass itself. The second part of the question is What have I done for you? When we look at that we see that God has chosen to save us from sin and death by sending his Son Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin Mary. We know from the Gospel that Jesus loves us to the end. There is nothing he will not do to redeem us and restore us to the Father’s grace. We know that the Father has put everything in Jesus’ power, and he chooses to give himself to the Father as an offering for our sins. To make us one with him and restore us to holiness, Jesus allows himself to be broken for our sins on the cross.

          Finally, we know that JeEsus entrusts himself to us as our food and drink. St. Paul reminds the Corinthians that Jesus’ action at the Last Supper was not just some symbolic recalling of the Passover, but the real and everlasting Passover. He has come to destroy death and make us who we are: children of God entrusted with a never ending inheritance. Through the words of the priest and the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit, simple gifts of bread and wine become real life for us, Jesus Christ. He has made the Covenant with the Father unbreakable. This is what Jesus has done and continues to do for us until he returns in glory.

          So now, we return to the first part of the question: Do we realize it? We often find ourselves taking much for granted. This is especially true of the spiritual nature of our lives. Do we realize who we are receiving? Do we realize the cost for him? Do we realize the value of the gift of God himseld who has filled this world with meaning and hope? Do we realize that Christ’s committment demands a response on our part? If we take the Gift for granted, then how do we treat the Giver?

          Tonight we remember what he is still doing for us through his Church. With gratitude let us turn to the Lord with love in our hearts and praise on our lips. Let us pray: Lord we realize what you have done for us. You love us, you died for us and you give us your Body and Blood so that we may never be separated from you. You are my love, my life, my God. Give me the courage to proclaim your death and resurrection through my words and actions so that all may know your love through me.