VIGIL REFLECTION

     I was asked to preach at our house Vigil celebration this year.  What follows is my reflection given this past Saturday evening to the men of the Neumann House residence for retired priests.

     We began our Triduum liturgy on Thursday by remembering - calling to mind as we heard the scriptures from Exodus the Passover supper of the first covenant - and then entering into the supper of the new covenant, doing as Jesus asked of us "in memory of me".  We recalled on Friday the suffering and death of Christ as we remembered the act of our redemption, the source of our salvation.  We reached out and touched the Cross which becomes our sign of victory.

      Tonight we continue to remember as we pledge to continue to walk in his way.  Our remembering involves the telling of our story, part one of our history.

     In 1981 there was a Mel Brooks comedy that came out entitled "History of the World, Part 1".  It presented a number of comedic scenes from human history from the cave man to Moses to Nero to the Spanish Inquisition to the French Revolution.  The Church tonight, in the beauty of the full liturgy and scriptures, gives us the REAL history of the world, part 1.

     From darkness and chaos and nothingness the Lord God said "Let there be light" ... he brought order to all created things ... and out of nothingness he brought life.  He crowned his creation by fashioning us (human beings) "in his image and likeness" and the befriending us.  But temptation and sin entered the picture and things went downhill from there.

     He called a people to himself in Abraham - and in the pivotal moment of our story freed them from slavery and bondage in Egypt and led them to a land flowing with milk and honey, a promised land.  There were highs and lows in this journey, all leading to the close of part 1 and the beginning of something new.

     That new thing, that new covenant was sealed with the ultimate sacrifice - the life of the Son of God on the tree of the Cross.  From this new Passover we experience a new exodus - from the darkness of our sin to reconciliation and the light of truth, through the chaos and confusion of a life lived in a troubled world to a way of living that IS peace, and from death in all of its forms to the new life of the risen Lord and the empty tomb.

     We will be invited in a moment to recall our baptismal promises and renew our commitment to this new covenant and the beginning of "the history of the world, part 2" - a journey that, while still not lived in perfection, is lived in hope and the assurance that the victory has been won ... the tomb is empty ... and we walk again, like in the garden of old, side by side in the friendship of Jesus, our Lord and Savior.

     Then, coming again to the table and recognizing him "in the breaking of the bread", we can go forth to witness with ALLELUIA on our lips and in our hearts.