A few years
ago a priest friend of mine was working in Rome. At one stage
he had a few minutes talking to Cardinal Ratzinger (Later Pope
Benedict XVI). Ratzinger asked him how things were in the
Church in Ireland. My friend John said, ‘Things are
terrible. The bishops are useless. All the young people have
stopped going to mass. It’s all over!’ Ratzinger said
to him, ‘Father, that is not the talk of a Christian. Where
is your faith in the risen Christ?’ This completely took him
aback and he knew that the cardinal was quite right. When he
recalled this story to me I could hear the power of that question in
me as well: ‘Where is your faith in the risen Christ?’ If
what we celebrate today is really true, that Jesus rose from the dead
and conquered the power of sin and death, then what could we possibly
fear? Even if our Church seems to be in a mess—which it
certainly does!—the power of Christ is greater than all of this and
it is Christ who is among us and it is Christ who is guiding the
Church, even if that is not always clear to us. What is key is
that we remain focused on Jesus who is Lord, and not on the mess, or
on the human side of the Church. Jesus the Son of God is the
head of the Church. The only reason the Church still exists is
because this is so.
For the
Easter Vigil we have several readings which recall the history of
salvation. We begin with one of the accounts of creation.
The two key points in this account are that it was God who created
and what God created was good. God’s creation is
fundamentally good. The fact that the human being was created
last, is a biblical way of saying that this was the high-point of
God’s creation. We are God’s masterpiece, the greatest
thing He created. But then somewhere back along the way we
rebelled and lost the harmony that was there. Throughout
history even though we continually strayed away from God, the Lord
continually brought us back to himself. He continued to show us
that the path which leads us to fulfilment and happiness is the path
that is leading towards him.
When God
rescues the people of Israel and leads them out of Egpyt and leads
them across the Red Sea, they cannot go to the left or to the right.
They can only go straight on towards God, or back to the ones who
enslaved them. In the reading from Isaiah (55:1-11) we hear the
words,
‘Listen,
listen to me and you will have good things to eat and rich food to
enjoy. Pay attention, come to me; listen and your soul will
live. With you I will make and everlasting covenant.’
In the
reading from Baruch (3:9-15, 32-4:4) we hear the words:
‘Listen,
Israel to commands that bring life: hear and learn what knowledge
means.’ ‘Israel, blessed are we: what pleases God has been
revealed to us.’
What pleases
God is that we continue to walk in his way because that is the only
way that will lead us to fulfilment. It is so simple and yet we
can so easily miss it.
In the New
Testament reading from Romans (6:3-11) which we read after the
Gloria, we are reminded that we now have a new life with God, because
of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Since we are joined to
Jesus through our baptism we now enjoy the new life He has won for
us. What is his is also ours, if we accept it. How could something
so enormous be given to us? Simply because that is the generosity of
God. In blessing the Easter water and renewing our own vows of
baptism we remind ourselves that we totally belong to God. What God
has done through the death and resurrection of Jesus is
extraordinary, but what is even more extraordinary is that He has
done all of this for us, so that we may have life in it's fullness.
It is ours if we accept it.
So now going
back to what Cardinal Ratzinger said to my friend: ‘Father, where
is your faith in the risen Christ?’ I think God is saying the
same thing to us today as we celebrate Christ’s resurrection from
the dead. Jesus is Lord and He is among us. He is the one
we focus on. It is only in him we will find the fullness of
life and if we remain focused on him then there is nothing for us to
be afraid of.
A happy and blessed Easter to everyone.
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