Bishop: Jesus’s resurrection restores, heals, transforms all who believe

Posted

CLICK HERE to watch the livestream video of the Easter Vigil.

Jesus’s passion, death and resurrection bring about a new passing-over from darkness to light, from sinfulness to mercy, from brokenness to communion, from woundedness to healing and restoration.

This resurrection needs to be lived, shared and put into action.

“Our lives are profoundly different because of the mercy we have experienced,” Bishop W. Shawn McKnight preached in his homily for the Easter Vigil this year. “Our past sins have been nailed to the cross, so now is the time for us to practice and show forth the mercy we have received from God.”

Bishop McKnight celebrated the Easter Vigil at dusk on Holy Saturday, concurrently with priests in parishes throughout the diocese.

Bishop Emeritus John R. Gaydos, who led the diocese from 1997 to 2018; Father Louis Nelen, rector of the Cathedral of St. Joseph and pastor of Cathedral of St. Joseph Parish; and Father Paul Clark, diocesan vocation director, director of seminarians, moderator for youth and adult ministry, and chaplain of Helias Catholic High School, concelebrated.

It was the culmination of the Church’s communal observance of Holy Week and the 40-day period of penitential preparation.

Symbols of fire, light, water, oil, bread and wine were highlighted in a Liturgy filled with some of the Church’s oldest and richest traditions and rituals.

The bishop baptized members of the elect and confirmed and gave First Holy Communion to the candidates for full communion at Cathedral of St. Joseph Parish, as did priests in parishes throughout the diocese.

He did so in temporary quarters in the elaborately decorated Cana Hall in the Undercroft of the Cathedral of St. Joseph, while extensive renovations and additions to the upstairs worship area were nearing completion.

He blessed the Easter Candle, symbol of the resurrected Christ, which will be used for Liturgies in the Cathedral over the upcoming year. 

In his homily, Bishop Mc­Knight spoke of two types of “passing over” that Christians experience in the resurrection, reflecting those the Israelites experienced in the time of Moses.

The first is a sacrifice that guards against eternal death, the other is a cleansing that turns back the effects of sin.

“The resurrection of Jesus changed everything!” said Bishop McKnight.

For Jesus’s first followers, the news was almost too good to believe.

Matthew’s gospel tells of how the women who saw the empty tomb and heard the testimony of an angel on Easter Sunday rushed back to tell the Apostles, “fearful, yet overjoyed.”

“Have you ever had an experience like that?” the bishop inquired. “Have you ever experienced something so terrible, so awful, it leaves you shell-shocked and numb such that even when good news comes it is hard to believe?

“We need the light and hope of the resurrection of Jesus Christ to see us through!” he said.

The resurrection brought Jesus’s separated friends back together and with the power of the Holy Spirit fashioned them into a vibrant, thriving, growing Church.

“As the physical body of Jesus was resurrected to new life, so the body of disciples was reconstituted and reestablished as the community of faith, hope and charity,” the bishop noted.

“Even the plagues and persecutions that were afforded the early Church the opportunity to shine like the stars in the night sky, manifesting to many unbelievers tangible signs of God’s mercy through the charitable works of all the baptized,” he said.

This all took time, but with the gift of the Holy Spirit 50 days after that first Easter, those first followers “passed from fear to fortitude, from discouragement and disappointment to joy, and from desperation and confusion to a bold proclamation of the many wonderful works of God!” said Bishop McKnight.

Like them, all who have been baptized into Christ’s death also share in his resurrected life, “which links us together with one another in the Church,” he said.

Nevertheless, everyone carries spiritual wounds that are in need of healing.

“While the fullness of resurrected life will only come at the end of time in the general resurrection of the dead,” the bishop noted, “even now the light of God’s mercy is given to us through the preaching of Christ’s Gospel, through the celebration of the sacraments, and through our charitable service and tender mercies to one another.”

“Through our celebration of the Easter Vigil this evening, especially with the celebration of the Sacraments of Initiation, we ‘pass over’ from darkness to light, from our confining slavery to sin to the freedom we have in the gift of the spirit,” the bishop stated.

“This Easter, may you and your families experience the joy of the resurrected life now and in the new life to come,” he said.

Comments