Schooler's Sagacity and Senility: Homilies from Fr. Bill

HOLY SATURDAY

31 MARCH 2018

A Vigil gives us an opportunity to hear the Word of God proclaimed.  For the last hour and a half, that is exactly what we have been doing.  We’ve listened carefully to the Word of God and heard of the incredible surprises of God’s love for us.  The first surprise was at the beginning.  God created the world and made it very good.  The next surprise comes to Abraham.  Because he trusted in God by being willing to sacrifice his only son, God promised that he would have as many descendants as the stars in the sky and the sands on the shore of the sea.  God surprised a group of slaves and led them through the Red Sea to freedom.  God surprised his people in their Babylonian Exile and gave them consolation.  God surprised others who were guilty of turning their backs on him by forgiving them.

We just heard the greatest surprise of all!  The women came on the eighth day, the day after the Sabbath, to do the final acts of kindness to the dead body of their dead Master.  Instead of finding his body, a young man dressed in white announced that he had been raised from the dead and went before them to Galilee, where they had started.  Out of love, the Father had sacrificed his only Son.  Out of love, he raised him from the dead.

Tonight, we renew our faith in this greatest of all of God’s surprises.  The Elect will stand before us to renounce the power of Satan in their lives.  They will profess their faith in the surprising Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Like those women on the eighth day, they will march to our Font, which has 8 sides.  They will enter into the watery tomb of that font to share in Christ’s dying.  They will emerge, completely one with Christ, with all their sins forgiven.  Clothed in white, like that young man in the tomb, they will proclaim the resurrection and join in the Sacramental life of the Church, confident that the risen Christ will walk with them in this new creation.

In response, we who have been baptized will renew our baptismal promises.  We will renew our faith in the God who always surprises.  We will continue to walk with them, never despairing that the God of surprises will always keep his promises.