What a privilege we have tonight in joining Christians all over the world to herald the triumph of Jesus’ Divine Love over sin and death. As we heard Dcn. Doug sing in the Exultet at the beginning of this beautiful Mass:
This is the night
that even now, throughout the world,
sets Christian believers apart from worldly vices
and from the gloom of sin,
leading them to grace
and joining them to his holy ones.
Tonight is a great night, a night of joy, a night of victory, a night of gladness, because Jesus is risen! Alleluia.
As I prayed with the beautiful readings for tonight, once again the Lord impressed upon my heart the truth that all of history, going back to the very beginning of Creation, is a love story between our Heavenly Father and us lowly humans whom He deigned to make in His image and likeness and now makes His beloved sons and daughters through Jesus. Thinking of that love story made me think about another love story, that between my Grandma and Grandpa, my mom’s parents.
Not too long ago, my grandpa went to the Lord, and at his funeral they played the recording of a song called ‘Legacy.’ One thing you have to know about my mom’s side of the family is that they are very musical. My mom and most of her siblings have been singing and harmonizing together for basically their whole lives and they make beautiful music when they do. Nineteen years ago, on the occasion of my grandma and grandpa’s 50th wedding anniversary, my mom and several of her siblings got together and composed and arranged a song to sing to them, called ‘Legacy.’
The night of their anniversary celebration, my grandparents were seated up near the front in the big top tent set up in their backyard. They were surrounded by their children, relatives and many friends. At one point my aunts and uncles all got up and sang a couple of original songs for them, ending with the song ‘Legacy.’ It was such a lovely tribute to them, recounting how they had left a beautiful legacy of love for all of their children. Here are some of the lines, which have stuck with me through the years:
What can we say
What can we do
What are the words
How can we thank you
You’ve given us a legacy
You’ve given us a legacy
You’ve given us a legacy, a legacy of love
I can see so many ways that the legacy of love continues on in my family. Just recently I gathered with a bunch of cousins from both my mom’s and dad’s sides of the family and there was so much love in the air. We are blessed to be inheritors of that legacy of love from both of my parents’ families and remain close because of it!
The legacy of love in my family is an echo of what we all are gathered here to celebrate tonight: the legacy of love that has echoed throughout human history and reached its fullness when Jesus stepped forth victorious and glorious from the tomb almost two thousand years ago. The story of God’s love shows us just how powerful God is and how much He desires to unite us with Himself.
At the beginning, God made humanity to perfectly share in love with Him, but out of envy the serpent, that image of our ancient foe, Satan, tempted them to distrust in the love of God the Father. Their choice to turn away from God and toward themselves has left a trail of sin, suffering and brokenness all throughout the history of humanity. Their Fall cost us that original justice that they were created with, and passed on a wounded humanity to all of us. But God never abandoned us or forsook the human race.
Throughout history, He continued working with humanity. God’s faithful love for us remained. He continually worked with us to draw us to Himself through covenants with Adam & Eve, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and finally, with all of humanity, through His Son! What an unparalleled gift we have that even as we have turned away from Him, God has never, never turned away from us. His legacy of love is one which has proven itself time and time again. As we heard from the prophet Isaiah:
Though the mountains leave their place
and the hills be shaken,
my love shall never leave you
nor my covenant of peace be shaken,
says the LORD, who has mercy on you.
Our God’s faithful love is here for us and draws us back, even in our failure. Now we live in the time of fulfillment, because Jesus has conquered our own unfaithfulness by His perfect faithfulness. He came to unite our frail humanity with His perfect Divinity and as the God-man, walked this earth completely faithful to His Heavenly Father, right to the very end.
And this is our reason to celebrate today, because He became human precisely to take our humanity not just to the Cross, but through the Cross to a new and glorious life. This life is poured out on us in each and every Sacrament, especially Baptism and the Eucharist. What a privilege it is to gather with our new catechumens, Amanda, Brandon and Candice, on this glorious night where you will experience that outpouring of His love and grace in Baptism, Confirmation and the Eucharist. In these and all of the Sacraments, we, as Christian people, become part of that new and everlasting covenant between God and ourselves that will be good for all eternity. You will join us in truly being sons and daughters of God, destined for Heaven and endowed with the Holy Spirit living inside of you, just as was prophesied by Ezekiel long before Jesus ever gave us the Sacrament of Baptism:
I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you,
taking from your bodies your stony hearts
and giving you natural hearts.
I will put my spirit within you and make you live by my statutes,
careful to observe my decrees.
There truly are no words we could possibly come up with to thank God for all His gifts, but miraculously we have a Thanksgiving offering that God has given us–the Eucharist, which comes from the Greek eucharistein, which means thanksgiving. So tonight as you are united to Jesus Himself in the Holy Eucharist, offer yourself to the Father, in the Son, through the Holy Spirit, giving yourself back to Him in thanksgiving for His love for you!
We who have already been made sharers in His marvelous family through the Sacraments are called tonight to join you in thanksgiving for the continued advance of God’s saving love. It is such a precious gift to join in this moment together; to remember that we are beneficiaries of the most awesome gift the world has ever known: a share in the death defeating love of Jesus! As Paul puts it: “We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life.” Let the brightness of the candles we lit at the beginning of Mass and the flames of those Baptismal candles soon to be set ablaze remind us of the new life we all get to share in.
We also heard tonight from the prophet Isaiah, speaking on behalf of our Heavenly Father: “Heed me, and you shall eat well, you shall delight in rich fare.” Tonight we bask in the glow of God’s love, delighting in the richest possible fare: that Eucharist, in which we taste of the glory of the Resurrection. Tonight and at every Mass, we have that foretaste of the Heavenly banquet that Jesus’ resurrection has opened for all who put their faith in Him!
So tonight, let us join Christians throughout the world in that sense of awe-filled wonder that filled the holy women who came with spices to anoint Jesus’ body and found the empty tomb. Let us put our faith in the glorious proclamation that they heard from the angel there: “Do not be amazed! You seek Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Behold the place where they laid him.” Let us have the confidence to go forth as they did and share that newness of the Resurrection with others in our lives. May His resurrection continually banish from us the power of sin and death so that through us the world might continue to be changed, as it has been ever since that first Easter morning. Let our whole lives give praise to the Lord as we celebrate His legacy of love, a living legacy in which we all are privileged to partake. Alleluia, He is risen!
+ Father in Heaven, thank you for never abandoning us. Thank You for your steadfast love. Jesus, thank you so much for your victory over sin and the grave that you have allowed us to share in. Holy Spirit, stir up the flame of faith in our hearts so that the overflowing joy of our hearts might lead many more to the new life You offer. We ask this through Christ, our risen Lord. Amen. +