30 March 2024 – Easter Vigil in the Holy Night

by Fr Fabian Dicom

How are we doing? Okay? Yes. It sounds like Jesus is out of the tomb. It sounds like it. Okay? If you know what I mean. So anyway, allow me to take you back to Palm Sunday and briefly recap our journey through the Holy Week until now. Very briefly.

Now on Palm Sunday, most of you were here, we focused on the centurion’s declaration that truly Jesus is the Son of God. This happened in the context when at the moment Jesus dies, the temple curtain splits in two. The temple is gone and is irrelevant. God’s Son is henceforth the place of salvation.

On Holy Thursday, this God, this Son of God who is our place of salvation gives us a mandate through the washing of the feet of his disciples:-

“For I have set you an example that you also should do as I have done to you.”

So we encountered in the whole liturgy, the word of God, the washing of the feet. We encountered the emptying of Jesus, taking the form of a servant and slave and heard the corresponding call to everyone, the command of our Lord to empty ourselves and become humble servants devoted to a way of life which brings honor to God and service to our neighbours far and near.

Now that emptying gives us the humility and openness to acknowledge that we may not be that perfect, leaving us actually vulnerable and exposed, perhaps even fragile. But we can now turn to the Cross of Jesus on Good Friday. And on Good Friday, Good Friday convinced us that he is surely, surely our place of salvation. That he will give us what it takes to live this mandate for the drama of the Cross did not end in death but in the flow of life that comes from death. The death of Jesus on the Cross is the beginning of Christian life.

And we have received the spirit of Jesus that explained, ya yesterday, breathed upon us from the Cross. We have received the Sacrament of Baptism and continue to receive the Eucharist which comes from the water and blood from his side. Through them we are transformed in to the body of the Lord. And this is who we are.

We were told that our only response is to be still. From that stillness, we come here today in anticipation of a peaceful and solemn and hopeful experience of the resurrection. And my prayer is that you will experience that in our liturgy today. And I pray very hard that you will.

Today’s Easter Vigil Gospel Reading ends with Mark 16:7:
He is going before you to Galilee. It is there you will see him just as he told you.
That was the last verse. Now it’s flashed there.

But it does not include the actual last verse of the chapter which is also the last verse of the Gospel of Mark. Mark 16:8 which is there:
And the women came out and ran away from the tomb because they were frightened out of their wits; and they said nothing to a soul, for they were afraid.

That is not included in today’s Gospel but that is the last verse in Mark’s Gospel, chapter 16. This is how the women responded to the wonderful news of Jesus’ resurrection. This is how Mark ends his Gospel. Now it is good to note here that it is generally agreed that verses (if you look at your Bible, you will find verses 9-20 in this chapter, most Bibles have that, all right?), now they were added. You can read the commentary. They were added to Mark’s Gospel later by those who could not believe that Mark would end it that way. Okay?

Now I don’t want to delve into some scripture class now. So I will just get back to the text. So just look at these two. Now, the abrupt ending and not a happy one at that of Mark’s Gospel has long been seen as a problem. Even early Christians have been puzzled by the startling closure of the Gospel.

The fact is Mark 16:8 is exactly the right ending for this Gospel. Written as it was for Christians under persecution who were themselves faced with martyrdom and focusing as it does on the Cross. It is the right ending, my dear brothers and sisters. For us too. This is where we live, after the resurrection but before the return of Jesus.

Of course, we are not persecuted as the early Christians but we are living in the in-between period and it is a very challenging time now. We experience the resurrection. Every year we celebrate it and we wait for the Lord but we are in-between. And it is a long, long in-between. But we are entrusted with a message that it is wonderful, but the importance, the significance of which we do not quite understand. 

So if we are honest with ourselves, Mark 16:6-8 (as shown on your slide here) is the space most of us inhabit. This is where we are. And scholars believe that Mark’s story is not rounded off, no happy ending precisely because the readers, you and me, are asked to write its ending. You and I have to write it.

What would be our story?
How would we write the ending for ourselves?

Perhaps the answer is in Galilee. Our Galilee. Mark 16:7 says:
He is going before you to Galilee. It is there you will see him just as he told you.

What is the significance of returning to Galilee? What is the significance?

Galilee stands as the Genesis of it all, the beginning of it all. It is there that the disciples are summoned to return to re-visit the very spot where their journey commenced. In the midst of Galilee’s calm shore, Jesus once walked alongside fishermen as they cast their nets. It was there amidst their daily toil that he extended his call to them. In that moment, in that moment, and you know your scriptures well, they abandoned everything, even their close ones and chose to follow him.

So, to return to Galilee means to re-read everything on the basis now. Earlier on, it was just calling. They were excited about this man. They followed him. But now, to re-visit, to re-read everything on the basis of the Cross and its victory. Fearlessly, do not be afraid, to re-read everything. I used the word yesterday, to reset. To have this different perspective to re-read everything, to re-read Jesus’ preaching, his miracle, the new community, the excitement, the defections (those who left), even the betrayals, starting form the end. And this end, which is the new beginning from the supreme act of love, his love from the Cross.

Brian pervill in his article says this:
For each of us too there is a Galilee at the start of our journey with Jesus.

‘Go to Galilee‘ means rediscovering our baptism as a living spring. Drawing new energy from the sources of our faith and our Christian experience.

Today I was very touched by the testimonies of many of our Elects, during the morning recollection. In some ways, you went back to Galilee, to re-discover that time. So to return to galilee means, above all, to return to that blazing light with which God’s grace touched me at the start of my journey. In the life of every Christian, after baptism, there is also another Galilee. This time, the experience of a personal encounter with Jesus who called me to follow him, to share in his mission. In this sense, returning to galilee means treasuring in my heart the living memory of that call.

When Jesus passed my way, I want you to think about it. When Jesus passed my way, gazed at me with mercy and asked me to follow him.

And that is what some of the things you shared this morning. And I am very sure that many of us have this experience. Even though we are baptized, there is this call within this call. So to return there means to return to Galilee means reviving the memory of that moment when his eyes met mine. The moment when he made me realise that he loved me.

Where is my Galilee?

My Galilee does not have to be a place. It is a situation, it is a frame of mind, or a choice we make, and definitely not confined to a church or to a parish. Our particular Galilee, yours and mine, could be a desolate journey, a trying, challenging journey of physical, emotional, sexual or spiritual pain. It could be ruined promises. It could be broken relationships or unrealised hopes. It could be addictions and isolation, oppression and injustice, betrayal and abandonment. It could be our financial struggles or it may simply be the ordinary circumstances of our every day lives.

Whatever it is, my dear brothers and sisters, the joy-filled and hope-filled message of Easter is the promise made to us that Christ is not only there when we arrive. He has gone ahead. He has gone ahead to that desolate place so that we might have loving arms in which to fall at the journey’s end, where he catches us. There the Lord is waiting for you.

And today when you make that decision, know that he is there. When you move from here to your new Galilee, going back to your normal life, do not be afraid. Do not fear. Return to Galilee. The Gospel is very clear we need to go back there to see Jesus risen, to become witnesses of his resurrection. This is not to go back in time. It is not a kind of nostalgia. It is returning to our first love in order to receive that fire that Jesus has kindled in the world and to bring that fire to all people, to the very ends of the earth.

Let us go back to our Galilee without fear.

Click below to listen to homily and watch video:-

Click to live-stream Mass on 30 March 2024