Father Jerry’s Easter Vigil Homily 2023

Six long weeks of Lent.
I actually have done my Lenten penance.
I have had no lima beans this entire time.
Thank you.
I’ve done it again.
I do this every year.
It’s a miracle.
So anyway, we have come now to the third night of the Triduum.
T-R-I means three, the D-U-U-M means days.
So we began with the institution of the Lord’s Supper,
that beautiful Passover meal that led us into
what happened the next day,
which was the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ,
celebrated so beautifully here yesterday
with the liturgy of the church.
And then tonight, after the Sabbath,
on the first day of the week,
we reach the summit, the climax, the apex
of all liturgical feasts of the year.
This is the night, as Father Stephen sang so beautifully.
And by the way, could I just hear it for Father Stephen?
Keith got a great, wow.
I begged him to sing that, I said,
“Oh Steve, you’ll take so much pressure off
“if you just sing that for me.”
I was lifted up into the heavens, it was so beautiful.
Now, I really, really wanted to preach tonight
about the beautiful gospel that Deacon George proclaimed.
You know, there’s so many interesting details
in this resurrection account of John,
oh, how I wanted to go into the fact
that the angel came, there was an earthquake,
and the angel was shining like lightning to the point
where the soldiers on duty
dropped to the ground like dead men.
I so wanted to go into detail
about the beautiful first words of the Lord,
“Don’t be afraid.”
I so wanted to say a lot about this gospel
that is proclaimed tonight
throughout the church universal everywhere,
but I’m only gonna give you one little tiny detail.
You don’t believe it, but I am.
One little detail.
Did you notice, I think all the gospel accounts
begin with on that first day of the week.
Let’s all say that together.
On that first day of the week.
Why the first day?
Tim, you’ve done it again.
You’re absolutely right.
What did we begin with tonight in the darkness?
The first reading was the first book of the Bible
that Don read so beautifully, proclaims so beautifully.
The book of Genesis.
And the most powerful verse in the book of Genesis
is chapter one, verse one.
Don proclaimed,
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
It was a formless void, but God’s spirit breathed upon the waters.
And then God said, let there be light, and there was light.
It’s all right there.
We have the mystery of the Trinity doing this together.
First God.
Spirit.
Moving across the waters and then he spoke.
Here’s the word.
Let there be what? [crowd responds LIGHT]
And Jesus said, I am [crowd responds the LIGHT].
It’s right there.
And now the gospel.
On the first day of the week,
when did God begin creating in the first chapter of the first book of the Bible?
Verse one.
On the first day of the week.
Right.
And then we went through, didn’t we?
Morning came, evening came.
“then the second day, then the third day,
“then the fourth day, then the fifth day,
“then the sixth day, and on the seventh day,
“which would be the Sabbath, Saturday,
“God looked at everything and went,
“holy moly, this is great.
“It’s done, this is fantastic, and he rested.
“That’s why the Jewish people always revered the Sabbath.
Sabbath, day of rest.
You know what you did on the Sabbath?
Nothing.
It was wonderful.
It was a day of cooking.
Hopefully if you were married, you have–
(bleep)
(audience laughing)
All day?
This is in the Midrash,
as I’m giving you teaching here.
This is true.
It’s a time for this.
This is feasting and celebration and no work.
It’s a command in the Decalogue, the 10 commandments.
But then we Catholics,
we have Sunday now as the Lord’s day.
Why?
Because this is the day where the Creator
is making the new heavens and the new earth.
The good news, brothers and sisters, hey, all is forgiven.
Period. The good news is proclaimed. Period. Sin and death are vanquished forever.
Period. Now these are the things I wanted to preach about tonight, but I tell you
the truth. I had a half hour alone behind the wheel of the car and was having a heart
to heart with the Lord.” And actually he spoke a little something down deep. And you know
And he said, “Jerry, tell them everything is all right.
Tell them everything is all right.
It really, really is… crowd: “All right”.
much later, he would appear to Lady Julian of Norwich and say, write these things down.
And he said to her, all is well, all is well. And you will see that anything that appears
not to be well shall be made well and all is well.” Could I hear an Alleluia
about that? Three words. All is well. All is well. All is well. Do not be afraid. Not
even a little bit. Everything is alright.
[ Pause ]
[ Applause ]
Well, can we hear it for him?
Wow.
[ Applause ]
Still creating that new heavens and new earth.