Abbot Michael offered this homily to the School community at this year’s Easter Vigil.

The Paschal Candle

Tonight we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and to mark this event we again begin to use the word “Alleluia”. This word indicates to us today’s theme and the literally earthshaking event it celebrates: the theme is Joy. You wouldn’t pick that up from the readings or the Gospel. The first witnesses to the empty tomb were the great women followers of Jesus: Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James. The women were astonished and carried the news of the Resurrection to the apostles, who were in hiding, in fear for their own lives. The Apostles did not believe the women: their story seemed like nonsense. So we hear later on, Peter and John raced to the tomb to see for themselves. John was probably just a teenager, so he ran a lot faster than the older Peter. Even though he got there first he waited for Peter, and out of respect let him be the first to enter the empty tomb. So Peter, was second to know, to see with his own eyes the empty tomb. And then John, the young man whose whole life was ahead of him, who didn’t know much, who hadn’t seen or experienced much, who only knew that he believed Jesus and loved him as his best friend. He was the third to know and to see. But all they could see was what was not, the body of Jesus was not there.

We can learn a lot from these three very imperfect, flawed first witnesses to the Resurrection. They are a lot like us. First, we learn that for us to experience that same resurrection that Jesus did we don’t have to be perfect. We don’t have to have led a perfectly saintly life and we don’t have to be rich and powerful and influential. We just have to have love – love for God in Jesus Christ, love for our neighbor, because God is love. That quick teenager St John tells us that God is love, and whoever lives in love lives in God, and God lives in him or her. Second, we learn that we don’t have to be fast. God is not in a hurry. It is you and I who make mistakes because we are in a hurry, like the Prodigal Son who wanted his inheritance now. God always waits for us, like the father in the story of the Prodigal Son. He watches and waits for us, and will make everything right when we arrive, or when he intervenes in our lives. Third, we don’t have to understand everything right now. Peter and John went home from the empty tomb confused. They had seen the evidence of the Resurrection with their own eyes but did not understand. Later that day the Risen Jesus came to them to explain to them.

God is so much bigger than us, so much better, that it is impossible for us to understand all of how he works and why he does what he does. There’s an old Baptist hymn that tells us we will understand it better “by and by.” For now, Joy is the message of Easter. Christians are meant to radiate joy, because Christians know what has ultimate meaning, because Christians know that death, that thing which is the ultimate downer to the orgy of self-satisfaction which so much of modern life has become, that death is NOT the end of it all. Jesus demonstrates to us on Easter that death is the beginning of a more perfect life of perfect love, unhindered by the material stuff to which our earthly lives are so attached. He is God’s promise to us that we will share in His Resurrection to that life, eternal life. If we are not about love and joy, then we are really missing something important. If we know the risen Jesus Christ, no one and no thing can take that joy from us, no one and no thing can separate us from the love of God, not even death.

We should be a school and community of joy. Palpable joy in all our activities, studies, sports, clubs in all our worship, all our prayers. Our family, friends, co-workers should notice and say, “What’s up with them? They are really happy.” Jesus Christ did not suffer and die for us, did not rise again for us so that we should be anxious, guilt-ridden or downcast. It was all for love, to free us from fear and sadness so that we might love Christ in and through others. So today we celebrate the attainment of the pinnacle of that love. Easter always comes in the spring. The whole earth is coming to life as flowers bloom and the leaves open up on the trees.

 
 Baptism at Easter Vigil

Tonight, in just a few moments, one member of this community will come to new life as he is baptized, confirmed, and receives the Eucharist for the first time with two other members of this community. Let us welcome him and rejoice with them. May we all be a source of joy to each other and the world. May our joy in the full meaning of the Resurrection be our participation in this life of the Kingdom of God, for Jesus tells us: Look and see, the kingdom of God is all around you. It’s right here. Happy Easter!

 

Abbot Michael Brunner, O.S.B. is the superior of Portsmouth Abbey