Bishop Paul Hinder's Homily at Easter Vigil: Go and tell that Christ is alive!

Easter Vigil 2019 / Homily (Luke 24:1-12)

We are almost every day witnesses of disasters and tragedies in the big world and in our surroundings. Just think about the disastrous situation in Yemen! How many people are suffering and going through periods of depression! And who just lost a beloved one has to pass through a time of mourning.

The women who went to the tomb must have been in this mood. There was little hope after the catastrophe of Calvary. Jesus had been executed like a criminal by a terrible and shameful death. Nothing could be done to bring the dead body back to life. To keep Jesus in good memory and to give his body the last reverence before it would decay, was the maximum they could do.

Isn’t it very often our own situation? How often are we left alone with little hope, broken relationships, loss of friends brutally taken away? Sometimes we have to live in trembling uncertainty with little or no possibility of changing the situation. There are moments when we look back and cherish the memories of better times like the women did on their way to the tomb.

In such moments we too need the messengers from heaven asking us like the women: “Why look among the dead for someone who is alive? He is not here; he has risen.” The impossible had unexpectedly become true: the one who “breathed his last” on the Cross is alive. Immediately everything changes. With the living Christ ahead the women can face the past, the present and the future with confidence and look at it with different eyes: “Remember – the messengers say - what he told you when he was still in Galilee: 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! And they remembered his words.” Now the women can look forward and we are invited to become their companions in faith.  Now we too are able to tell the stories of hope and life, instead of the stories of violence and death. The angels still tell you and me: “Go and tell that Christ is alive”.

In a few minutes we shall (have a few adult baptisms and) renew our own baptismal commitment. 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. 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, the Son and the Holy Spirit. We are promising to let the deadly works of the past behind us and to reactivate the story of life and love. “Do not look among the dead for the one who is alive!” For: “Christ has risen from the dead! Alleluia!”