Easter Vigil

‘We are called to surrender ourselves to God, so that we can say with St Paul, “It is not I who live but Christ who lives in me.’’ Read the homily from the Easter Vigil at St Mary’s Church.

“The guards were so shaken,
so frightened of [the angel] that they were like dead men.” 

They would have experienced the trauma of war,
the battles and blood,
the combat,
the killings,
Seen things we would not want to see,
and braved the enemy,
taken orders,
taken possession,
taken loot,
taken lives.

And now they are frozen,
inanimate,
shocked to the core,
like dead men,
we are told.
Perhaps they’ve seen too much.

These men,
who have enjoyed the camaraderie 
and idle talk of a night-time watch
are rendered speechless,
immobile,
like dead men.

They have experienced something different,
something new,
seen things that are beyond their words.
They are dumb and tongue tied.
Perhaps they stare into the middle distance,
or sleep open eyed,
an induced coma.

An angel sits beside them,
passes the time of day,
resting on the very stone
that had sealed the sepulchre,
rolled away in an instant,
in the swoop of an angel’s light. 
The angel brings a lightning brightness to the scene.
The place of death is illuminated.

This is beyond their experience,
breaks their expectations of war.
They are rendered useless
in the face of beauty.
There is no white flag to wave.
Just the whites of their eyes, staring.
But they have surrendered now,
They have been overcome by the Divine,
by the power of Love

Turning to the women
who have entered the scene,
the angel quickly speaks,
offers words of comfort,
and reassurance.
He knows the intentions of their hearts,
and whom they seek.
“He is not here,” the angel whispers,
“he has risen,
as he said he would.”

Jesus has moved on,
beyond the grave,
beyond them,
for now.
And so they move on to meet him too.
Armed with the message of salvation,
they carry the news of Resurrection,
following a Divine order
to march on.

And then, from somewhere in the distance,
they see him,
He comes to greet them
across the garden.
They fall down,
clasp his feet,
hold onto him,
feel the warmth of the rising sun
upon their backs,
their face to his wounded feet,
which are the marks of love.

They surrender to him.
They are caught up in sheer love,
their lives turned around,
as they had always been turned
since the moment they knew him,
since the first time they met him
and had that growing awareness
of who he was.

 
Unlike the soldiers who play dead,
they feel alive,
more alive than they have ever felt before.
And they are ready to move on,
back to the others,
and onwards to Galilee,
to the water’s edge
where once they had walked with Jesus.

For us,
these Easter celebrations
are a fresh encounter with the Risen Lord.
We have been drawn deeper
into the mystery of Christ’s Death
and Resurrection.

Soon, we shall return to the waters of rebirth,
recall that moment when we first walked with Jesus,
when our own lives were changed,
when we drew deep from the wellspring of salvation,
when Christ’s death marked us,
when we were branded with love.

Here in South Cardiff,
we share our lives with so many different kinds of people,
building friendships
which cross religious boundaries,
straddles language and cultures,
working together to build a brighter world for all.
Our Muslim friends are, of course,
celebrating their own holy season of Ramadan,
and we are mindful that the word, ‘Islam’
identifies who and what they are called to be:
‘submissive to God.’

We, too, are called to submit,
to surrender ourselves to God,
so that we can say with St Paul,
‘It is not I who live
but Christ who lives in me.’

'When he died, he died,
once for all, to sin,” wrote St Paul.
“So his life now is life in God.
You too must consider yourselves dead to sin
and alive for God in Christ Jesus.”

Yes, we are ‘alive for God’ in Christ Jesus.
Quite simply, we are Alive - for God.
We have been made by God and for God,
and ‘our hearts are restless until they find their rest in him.’
We are called to surrender to him,
to be submissive to him,
to be enlivened by him
because we too are ‘in Christ Jesus.’

We are not to be like dead men,
immobile and useless,
shaken and afraid.
We are an Easter People,
filled with life,
living in Christ,
armed with the message of his Resurrection,
bearing the good news
that Jesus is risen from the dead.

It’s from Christ that the Apostles get their marching orders
to go out to the whole world.
It is a Divine Commission,
a sending out.

So too we are called to live and be the change,
to speak life into death,
hope into hopelessness,
to walk the way of peace,
to dismantle war,
to scatter hatred,
to untangle the injustices of the world,
so that Love will reign.
We are to stand alongside those who are weak and discouraged,
as a people who want and can and do transform the world,
because we will have known it is possible,
because we will have been transformed ourselves,
and have known what it means to have our lives turned,
again and again,
back to the One
who has Risen from the dead.

St Terese of Liseux said,
“Love consumes us
only in the measure of our self-surrender,’’

And so we must wave the white flag
and surrender to his Love,
to the One who “demands my soul, my life, my all.”
that we may we be consumed by his Love,
and be transformed by the beauty of his Love,
as we cling to Christ,
are moved on by Christ,
marched on with the victory cry of Alleluia!

“The strife is over, the battle done
The victory of life is won
the song of triumph has begun. Alleluia!

The powers of death have done their worst
But Christ their legions has dispersed
Let shouts of holy joy outburst.  Alleulia!

Lord by the stripes which wounded thee,
From death’s dread sting thy servants free
That we may live and sing to thee, Alleluia!