Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Why is tonight different from all other nights? It is different because we have heard an abundance of the Word of God. It is different because we are here in the wee hours of the morning. It is different because the assembly is so beautiful, because we are going to solemnly celebrate these baptisms, because we will stay here longer tonight. Why is this night different from all other nights? Because on this night there will be light. It is a night with light, not a dark night. It is not a night of death and there is no dead man to anoint. In a tomb there is always death but tonight they find life, not death. He is not here, he is risen; this is why this night is different. This night is a holy night in which the Lord comes to love you deeply. It is the night where he comes to take you out of slavery where you can only look for yourself in everything, the slavery of money, of sex, of power, of success, of vanity, in all the many idols that we have.
In the darkness that surrounds us where we always live, the Paschal candle will shatter it. At the beginning of the vigil there were only little candles that you lit in church and passing to one another because this is how faith is transmitted. Faith is contagious; it is not imposed; it is love. Only if you are loved can you love. This is why the Lord comes today because he knows we cannot love, we cannot forgive, we cannot stop being slaves. A slave cannot stop being a slave even if he wants to stop. He needs someone to buy him and free him. On this night we celebrate that there is one who bought us and wants to set us free. He wants to set us free from so many idols and take us out of slavery, give us freedom and take us to the Promised Land that we heard in the readings.
I was impressed by the first reading when God in the beginning of creation when all was in the chaos of darkness, God said let there be light, and there was light. God is wonderful because he creates not by doing things; he creates with his Word. He said let there be light, and there was light. There was an abundance of the Word of God tonight and his Word has the power to create in you a new heart that was announced earlier. I will give you a new heart and infuse in you a new spirit through the Word of God on this wonderful night. This is why tonight is different because the Lord wants to take you out of hell. He wants to give you light.
He wants to help you because he loves you and you come here with a specific suffering, or with a sadness, or with a serious sin, you come anxious and distressed. Perhaps you come without sleep, depressed, not knowing what to do in your marriage or with your children. You might not know what to do with your life or you feel it is over or it has not been joyful and you don’t know why. You don’t know how to live as a widow or on your own, how to make your children love you. The Lord comes tonight to help you. He is the light that you need. You are thinking, how can he help me, how will coming to this Eucharist save me?
This night is different because we are not remembering a past event; we are experiencing again the Risen Christ; he rises again for you today! He conquers death for you. He rises and destroys death. He can overcome death that you and I cannot vanquish. What event of death are you speaking about? Death is perhaps your spouse sitting next to you that you cannot accept her or him. Death is that you know you cannot love anyone. Death is thinking life comes from drinking or getting drunk or sleeping with your girlfriend or boyfriend and the day after you experience sadness and bitterness no matter how many times you sleep with one another. There is no life in these things. Life comes from loving, from dying to yourself. The Lord has the power to overcome that death that you and I cannot because an alcoholic cannot stop taking. He wants to stop but he cannot. He can sing a little song but that doesn’t do anything to help him. It doesn’t save him. Christ is the one who saves, his love saves. He can only stop drinking if he feels truly loved.
This is why Christ comes to look for us in our darkness this night. We started the Easter vigil with this darkness that was broken by the light of the Easter candle. It breaks the darkness that is inside of us. We live in darkness and have become so used to it and we don’t even realize we live in darkness. When the lights came on our eyes were blinded. The Lord comes, brothers and sisters to enlighten us and sometimes it hurts us, it may cost us. But what joy it is to be able to see. As we sang in the Easter Exultet: this is the night that conquered death; this is the night! It was wonderful how that song also said this night that reconciles man to his God. Today Christ reconciles us with the Father.
I don’t know how you are with your father here on earth, if he already died or if he is still alive, do you love him or hate him or adore him, I don’t know. But I do know how we are with your Father in heaven: we are not good. This is why our brother, Jesus Christ, the Son of God had to come to reconcile us with our Father in this feast. Tonight is different because tonight you are to reconcile with your Father, thanks to Jesus Christ.
I don’t know if you understand the depth of this. This is the night which freed our fathers from Egypt. This is the night that saves us from the darkness of evil. Oh, happy fault that deserved so great a Savior. How can we not cry when we hear or sing these words? A night truly blessed, that broke our slavery, that gained for us such a great Savior. Without that night, that darkness, we could not have seen the light. It is necessary to experience first the darkness because this blindness will manifest the glory of God; it will shine! The people were slaves in Egypt so that the glory of God be seen. We saw it in the third reading about the people of Israel passing through the Red Sea and their dead enemies were lying on the shore. You will see your enemies also on the shore: your love for money that is so dear to you that almost led you to destroy your family or to hate your brother because he stole the inheritance. If you did not love money, you would have let him steal the inheritance, but you couldn’t.
You hate others because of money and your father who wasted his money on women and drinking. For love of money, you hate him. Love of money is not a little thing. The Lord wants to help us get out of it, to take us out of that slavery. Blessed be the Lord because of our love for money or that serious sin you committed. Why would we bless the Lord? He used that sin to show you his love, when no one else could love you. Think a moment of that place where no one loved you or understood you, but tonight the Lord loves you and understands you. He even goes down to you and helps you.
This is what is different about this night from all other nights. This is why the Lord makes Passover with us; he changes everything. What was killing us, now gives us life. What was only religion is now faith. We saw it in Abraham. What was darkness is now Light. The Lord gives us a new heart, a new spirit. He is the one who takes the initiative. It is not us who looks for a new heart. We are not able to love and forgive. He will open your graves and take you out of it. He will sprinkle pure water that will purify you and give you a new heart.
God is the one who does everything. He is not like you or me. He doesn’t say I will fix your heart. No, he gives us a new one. Has anyone here had a heart transplant? What is needed to have one? First, we have to take out the heart that doesn’t work, like yours or mine. Then we need a donor. Is there someone here who wants to give his heart? I doubt it. Someone has to die in order to give his heart. He has to be dead. We saw that yesterday on Good Friday, a man who wants to give you his heart, his very heart.
All this is given to us, brothers and sisters. The heart of the Lord is ready, he died and will do the transplant tonight. That is why this night is different from all other nights. We can leave here from this celebration able to love. We can leave here resurrected. We can leave here forgiving and full of joy because that is the only thing the Lord wants for us!