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April 16, 2022Abu Dhabi.
The celebration of the Easter Vigil was led by Bishop Paul Hinder at St. Joseph's Cathedral Abu Dhabi.
Below is the full text of the homily delivered by the Bishop during the celebration.
Reading of the day:
Luke 24:1-12
Nineteen years ago, a few months before I was elected bishop, I passed the Holy Week and Easter in Jerusalem. Almost every day I used to go on foot from the house of the Capuchins to the old city and visited the holy places. In the park I had to cross on the way to the town there was a well-preserved garden tomb from ancient times. It was locked by a big stone, that looked like an upright standing millstone. The stone could be rolled back to give access to the interior of the tomb. The place where the body of Jesus was laid must have looked similar. Getting closer to the area of the tomb it was easy to imagine the surprise of the women in today’s gospel when they came to the place in the morning of the first day of the week and saw that “the stone had been rolled away from the tomb, but on entering discovered that the body of the Lord Jesus was not there” (Luke 24:2).
They were perplexed and even terrified when they found the tomb open and met inside two mysterious men in dazzling clothes telling them “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here but has risen” (Luke 24:5). We too would have doubted and reacted like the disciples who “took the story of the women as pure nonsense, and they did not believe them” (Luke 24:12). I think there are still plenty of people who take this story as pure nonsense and cannot accept and believe that the crucified and dead Jesus is risen and alive. Even Jesus’ own disciples needed time to come to believe what seemed to be impossible. Only step by step they began to accept and to understand what Jesus had told them long time before his passion, namely that “the Son of Man had to be handed over into the power of sinful men and be crucified and rise again on the third day” (24:7).
However, as Christians, we are called to change from the camp of the dead bodies to the field of the wheat that comes out from the single grain that died and bears now fruit.(cf. John 12:24).
The question and answer of the two mysterious men to the women remains a challenge and a sting also in our skeptical hearts: “Why look among the dead for someone who is alive? He is not here; he has risen” (Luke 24:5). Because we too, are torn between belief and disbelief, not able to imagine how it could happen and be true. We too have the tendency in our lives to “look among the dead” not fully believing that Christ is truly alive and gives us already a share in his life. How often are we looking back on what went wrong, fixing our eyes exclusively on the bad experiences of the past, the catastrophes happening, the injustice reigning, the wars going on! Indeed, it is not easy among so many dead bodies and bad memories to turn our eyes to the one who is already alive and has the power to give life to all who go through experiences of the death of any kind. However, as Christians, we are called to change from the camp of the dead bodies to the field of the wheat that comes out from the single grain that died and bears now fruit (cf. John 12:24). Like the women, we too are called to tell the story that Christ is alive to our skeptical contemporaries.
“Do not look among the dead for the one who is alive!” Indeed, “Christ has risen from the dead! Alleluia!”
During this Easter Vigil, we shall celebrate the baptism of adults. They will publicly profess their faith in Jesus Christ as the Lord who is not dead but alive. And we are called to renew our own baptismal commitment. With the newly baptized, we shall be ready to witness that we are no more looking for Jesus among the dead but that we welcome him as the giver of life. Amidst a deadly world, we are living a moment of life. Death and resurrection are the turning point in the life of Jesus Christ and in the history of salvation. Baptism was and is the decisive turning point in our life as Christians. We may be little aware of this key moment because most of us were baptized as babies. All the more it is important to refresh our memory and to validate our commitment in a powerful “Yes, I do” when we are asked to reject Satan and his works and to believe in God the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. It empowers us to dig no more around in the cemetery of the past but to reactivate the story of life and love. “Do not look among the dead for the one who is alive!” Indeed, “Christ has risen from the dead! Alleluia!”
