A GREAT CHANGE

THE SACRED PASCHAL TRIDUUM:

THE EASTER VIGIL IN THE HOLY NIGHT

Gospel: Luke 24: 1 – 12

“The only thing constant is change,” says the philosopher Heraclitus. Since it is inevitable in life, then, we have mixed and different reactions when we talk about change. There was once a son who upon returning home told her mother that he is graduating magna cum laude from college this April. And so, the mother was overjoyed with the news. But the son added, “Ma, aside from my graduation this April, you will also become a lola because my girlfriend is giving birth next month!” And the mother raged in anger. Indeed, we have mixed and different reactions when we are confronted with change.

In our Gospel this evening, there was a sudden change of events. The burial place of Jesus was found empty. And how did the characters react to such change? The women who brought spices at the tomb were puzzled and terrified with the news. Luke also tells us that for the disciples the story of the women was nonsense and did not believe them. Peter who went to the tomb was amazed with what he had seen. Indeed, we have mixed and different reactions when we are confronted with change.

Our celebration tonight marks a very significant change in our faith life. In the readings that we heard, we find a lot of changes. In the story of creation, there was a change from chaos to order. In the story of the Exodus, there was a change from slavery to freedom. And our Exultet boldly proclaims to us that “this is the night when Christ broke the prison bars of death and rose victorious from the underworld.” This is therefore the important change that happened to our faith – that the Lord whom we believe and adore is not sleeping inside the darkness of the tomb. Rather, Jesus, our Lord, is truly, fully, and really alive! Thus, we sing with the angels, “Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!”

Now we ask ourselves, how shall we react to this change? What must be our response to such a wonderful change? Paul in his letter to the Romans tells us that like Jesus who lives for God and dies no more, we too must think of ourselves as “being dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus.” This change that we receive this holy night must lead us to change ourselves – from sinfulness to grace, from having died because of sin to living for God in grace. I hope that as we change season from Lent to Easter, our celebration tonight will be the beginning of our life’s change for the better.

And so, we pray to our Risen Lord…

“Change my heart oh God,
Make it ever true.
Change my heart oh God,
May I be like You.

You are the potter,
I am the clay,
Mold me and make me,
This is what I pray.”

Amen.