Homily for the Easter Vigil, 2007
Real Media (sound and pictures)
Why do you seek the Living One among the dead?
He is not here, but he has been raised.
This is the core Easter message
and variations of these words appear in all the Gospels
and the Acts of the Apostles.
He is not here, meaning the Risen Lord is no longer in the tomb.
He is here with us, in you and in me,
in this assembly, in our community.
Back in the 1980s
there was a program on PBS entitled,
"The Day The Universe Changed."
I found it a fascinating program
because it showed the interlocking pieces
of scientific and technological breakthroughs,
as well as economic changes
that bring about fundamental changes
in human understanding.
Truly the day of the Christ's resurrection is
THE DAY THAT THE UNIVERSE CHANGED.
Why do you seek the living one among the dead?
He is not here, but he has been raised.
The resurrection of Christ confirms the truth of the words:
"Love is stronger than death."
Love is stronger than Pilate and his soldiers;
it is stronger than fear and uncertainty.
it is stronger than the constraints of the human condition.
What would a life look like that embodies this truth?
It might look like a community of people
committed to a hospitality that will not quit,
with a respect that honors the least and the last.
It would be a way of living with a small footstep:
respecting earth, air, fire, bread, the fruit of the vine,
It would be passionately committed
to the protection of vulnerable human life,
old and young;
It would be a way of living in which we are committed
to rooting out anger and bitterness
and moving toward forgiveness.
Easter love, the love that is the power behind the resurrection,
is about our being clothed in new garments:
the clothing of active love, a passion for justice,
the commitment to healing and reconciliation.
Easter love and Easter joy
call us to commit ourselves to live into this new Easter community
which is stirred into being by the Holy Spirit.
Why do you seek the living one among the dead?
He is not here, but he has been raised.
Singing is a powerful integration of feeling and thinking
that takes us beyond the bounds of the purely rational,
into a kind of ecstasy.
Singing finds its climactic form in the Easter Alleluia.
Alleluia is the nonverbal expression of a joy
that cannot be captured in translation.
We sing it with jubilation, with joy,
in our own way, giving expression to the song and the hope
that are deep within each one of us.
As those who sow with tears and uncertainty,
and then find a harvest that is beyond all measure,
so tonight we sing the Easter alleluia,
our hearts full of confident hope
that God will lift us up with the Risen Christ.
Why do you seek the living one among the dead?
He is not here, but he has been raised.
Abbot John Klassen, OSB
April 8, 2007
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