The young man at the tomb says to the women Ayou seek Jesus of Nazareth the crucified@. The crucified. Friday, Jesus was condemned to death. And His last words on the cross were Ainto your hands I commend my spirit.@ And then they took him down from the cross and kind of buried him in a hurry in a tomb that was new, nearby, a friends tomb. And they hurried because they didn=t want to be defiled in celebrating the Passover which, of course, was to celebrate the deliverance of the people from slavery in Egypt. And so we gather also in vigil anticipating because we already know the answer Jesus= resurrection. But we are brothers and sisters in Christ and we join that of the whole church throughout the world anticipating something new. We hope that the power and the mystery of this vigil will penetrate our mind and our hearts. And we too have paid attention to Jesus= death on the cross on Friday, we adored the cross, we too reflected on the big stone that sealed Jesus in the tomb. So why are you here now? Are you too seeking Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified? Yes, we are here to seek Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified. We already sense in what we have done already in this Liturgy something of the power of this night. We bless the fire, we lit the candle and cried out Alight of Christ.@ We heard the exaultet singing the marvels of this night and we listened to the Word of God that is being compared to this night. Creation is compared to this night, the whole mighty power of God=s creative action is compared to this night. The exodus action of God that set His people free from slavery through the blood of the Lamb. And getting them through the Red Sea is compared to this night. And then the whole action of God with His people which we don=t read but summarized in the third reading that God is going to do something brand new. Something different that was never done before. On this unique night all that the people celebrated generation after generation proclaiming the Word of God is fulfilled in this night. This night is the summit of God=s action to redeem His people. And soon we will be blessing water which of course is used in Baptism in which we know that the Spirit is poured out. And so yes, we seek Jesus crucified in the words of Paul, ASince our old self was crucified with Him so that we might no longer be enslaved to sin. Since we consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus the death He died He did to sin once for all. But the life He lives He lives to God.@ Yes, we seek Jesus crucified since we were buried with Him by Baptism into His death so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. We seek Jesus crucified since we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in the resurrection like His. Since we believe that if we have died with Christ we shall also live with Him since we believe that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over Him. This is the reason we are here at this hour. Do we believe? In about 1930 or so, Stalin=s reign, in a women=s concentration camp Easter came. A group of women went to the commandant and said, Awe would like to be excused from work today.@ And of course the commandant said, Ano way. You=re going to work.@ So they got the guards out and with the rifle butts they got them to go to the woods and they were going to do logging. But they refused to do any of the logging. They left their axes down, they stood there. So the guards again gathered them on a pond. It was in April, it was still icy and there was a thin layer of water. They made them take off their shoes and said, Ao.k. if you don=t want to work then o.k. celebrate Easter.@ Those women sang the whole liturgy in the Eastern Rite of course. To the amazement of the rest of the guards and others who didn=t participate and the unbelieving, atheistic, Communists Commandant who was running this, was a women, thirty years later said, Anot one of those women got sick.@ Not only that they increased the amount of believers fifty percent because of that one witness. When we celebrate this night we do in a heightened true way the most important thing that ever happened in history. For Jesus conquered death on this night. And in the liturgy we renew that act, solemnly, at the Easter vigil in minor key every Sunday of the year, and in a kind of beautiful music, everyday for those who believe and have the opportunity. We need to open our hearts and our minds to the most powerful action God so graciously bestows on us in this night. It is greater than creation, it is greater than His action of liberating the people from Egypt, it=s greater than all the works that the Lord has done to this moment and it=s for us to freely dispose ourselves to receive it. To receive that life to live that life now that is eternal, full, incomprehensibly joyous, because it=s the very life of God.

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