Gone Golfing

Yesterday was the last day of classes at the University of Notre Dame, and though our confreres at Holy Cross College still had a few classes to get through today, a good number of the men in formation spent this morning participating in the annual Moreau Seminary Golf Scramble.

Held at the University's Warren Golf Course, this best-ball tournament is a great opportunity for the youngest members of our community to mix with a great cross-section of the finally professed community - perhaps especially with a number of our men who are semi-retired.

I was paired with Old Collegian Mike Palmer (below), Candidate seminarian Tim Mouton (seen at the tee below) and Fr. Chuck Lavely, CSC who serves as the Assistant Superior of Holy Cross House, our community nursing home.

We had a great time together, and our play complimented each other perfectly: when one person was struggling, someone else stepped up and hit the shot we needed. I was particularly pleased to have contributed well after taking a year and half long hiatus from the links. On the 16th hole, a 270 yard hole which we parred, our team used all four of my strokes!

When everyone had finished their round, we gathered at the lovely Warren Grille for lunch out on the back patio, overlooking the 18th green.

With study days just under way, and finals to commence on Monday, this was a great way to celebrate the end of another successful semester and to enjoy the lovely spring weather we've been having.

A New Missal

Over the past several years, the Congregation for Divine Worship in Rome, and an international committee of bishops and scholars representing all English-speaking countries, have been working to make a new English translation of the latest edition of the Roman Missal. Their work is finally coming to a conclusion, which is to say that before too long the Mass prayers and responses we have known for the past forty years will be changing.

This new translation has many things to recommend it: it is definitely much more faithful to the Latin text it seeks to translate; it employs a more sacral language, helping ensure a dignified and theologically rich liturgy; and it unites all English-speaking churches in use of the same missal.

Still, all change (especially in the liturgy) runs the risk of confusing and alienating those who are comfortable and used to a previous way of doing things. And so our Holy Father's words to the Vox Clara committee are particularly important:

"A new task will then present itself . . . the task of preparing for the reception of the new translation by clergy and lay faithful. Many will find it hard to adjust to unfamiliar texts after nearly forty years of continuous use of the previous translation. The change will need to be introduced with due sensitivity, and the opportunity for catechesis that it presents will need to be firmly grasped. I pray that in this way any risk of confusion or bewilderment will be averted, and the change will serve instead as a springboard for a renewal and a deepening of Eucharistic devotion all over the English-speaking world."

All of us can prepare for the new missal, which is still many months away, by visiting a webpage created by the U.S. Bishop's conference and familiarizing ourselves with the new texts. It would also be appropriate to (politely) ask your pastor, diocesan liturgy office, or bishop about opportunities that will be made available in your area to learn more about the changes.

Let us pray with the Holy Father that this wonderful opportunity for renewal of our Eucharistic devotion will indeed be seized by clergy and laity throughout the country!

UPDATE: My confrere Fr. John Pearson, csc was good enough to direct me to a few more sources of information I can share with you: The Notre Dame Center for Liturgy has audio and video files of theologians explaining elements of the new Missal . . . and the Liturgical Institute at Mundelein Seminary in Chicago has also made catechetical resources available online. Enjoy!

The Catholic University of America

After my weekend in Philadelphia, I traveled south to the nation's capital to visit The Catholic University of America, where I will be enrolled in the M.A./Ph.D. program in American History this fall.

Founded in 1887, Catholic University is the national university of the bishops' conference. As is so often the case, there is a deep connection between this important Catholic institution and the Congregation of Holy Cross. From its earliest days, Fr. John Zahm, C.S.C. was a major supporter of CUA, building Holy Cross College on the campus, which served as a seminary for members of the Congregation.

During my visit I stopped by the Graduate Admissions Office in McMahon Hall (above) and was pleased to spend time chatting with Andrea Parisi, my cousin Brendan's girlfriend, who now works in that office.

I also met with a number of the professors in the History Department, which is housed in Cardinal Hall:

The real architectural highlight of the campus is also its spiritual heart: the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Begun in 1920 and dedicated in 1959, this national shrine is dedicated to the patroness of the United States. It is a truly magnificent building and I look forward to praying there regularly.

Besides meeting with professors and touring campus, I spent time looking into parishes where I might reside while in graduate studies. I have several good options and I look forward to finalizing my plans in the very near future, and sharing them with you here.

I'm excited to be heading to Washington and to be beginning studies at CUA this fall. Washington should prove to be an exciting place to live, and I am looking forward to being in the same city as my cousins Brendan and Bobbie. And CUA will be a great place for me to pursue the study of the Church's history in America, as it plays such an important part in that history.

A Run for the Border

Fr. Kevin Russeau, CSC is not only the Director of the Old College Program, he's an alumnus of Holy Cross College and serves on their Board of Trustees.

As he leaves South Bend for his new assignment as Novicemaster for the Congregation of Holy Cross, he has been working to raise funds for student scholarships at Holy Cross College.

A former manager of a Taco Bell restaurant, Fr. Kevin got his old job back for a few nights, and has asked friends, family and supporters to "give him a raise."

Donations can be made by sponsoring Fr. Kevin's hourly wage. But one can also contribute by dining at Taco Bell during his shift, as Holy Cross College will receive 10% of the sales for their scholarship fund.

As you might imagine, the men of Old College are looking forward to supporting Fr. Kevin's efforts. Charity never tasted so good!

UPDATE: I'll have pictures of my own before too long, but for now, WNDU has a report on their webpage.

West Side Story

A couple of our Old Collegians have come to the plains of Northern Indiana from more southernly environs, including Texas and Arizona. One of the things they most miss from home is authentic Mexican and Tex-Mex food. Luckily, like most other moderately sized northern cities, South Bend has a significant Mexican population - so the West side of South Bend boasts several restaurants where these cravings can be sated.

On Monday evening, after our normal Old College Mass, I joined a number of our men on an excursion to one of these restaurants, recommended to us by Fr. Chris Cox, csc the pastor of St. Adalbert's Parish on the West side.

Nothing fancy here - but there were certainly bountiful burritos, enchiladas, and tacos. There was even Mexican Coca Cola, which I consider superior to our own version as it is made with pure cane sugar. In the midst of the hectic rush toward the end of the semester, this was a nice way to relax and enjoy some truly "southern" comfort food!

Sunday, Muddy Sunday

Here under the Golden Dome students are gearing up for the final papers, assignments and tests of the semester. So there's lots of pent up energy and frustration to be released, and what better way than mud volleyball!

As part of the An Tostal spring festival, students mark off volleyball courts on the field alongside St. Mary's Lake and then spray them down. This year, the weather also contributed to the muddy conditions as it rained pretty steadily throughout the day.

Mike Palmer and Joe Sheehan (pictured below serving and gloating) both participated from Old College, though neither of their teams advanced beyond the initial rounds. I for one would have been glad!

The Year for Priests - Bishop Kevin Rhoades

As you have noted on the sidebar of this blog, the Church is currently observing a Year for Priests in accord with the Holy Father's wishes for the commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the death of St. John Vianney, patron of priests.

My classmate and Director of Vocations for the Indiana and Eastern Provinces of Holy Cross, Fr. Jim Gallagher, csc has organized a wonderful series of talks to commemorate this Year for Priests. The series began several months ago with a conference by Bishop John D'Arcy. This week, the series concluded with a special Mass, dinner and lecture at Moreau Seminary featuring the new bishop of our diocese, Bishop kevin Rhoades.

Bishop Rhoades gave a simply outstanding presentation on Jesus Christ the High Priest. It was a theologically rich and emotionally moving speech - a real pep-talk for clergy and seminarians. Our men in formation, and those priests who attended, as well as a good number of students, lay faithful and women religious in attendance, were all blessed to share the evening together.

And Bishop Rhoades was given a small token of appreciation - a Moreau Seminary jacket - that we pray he wears in good health. Hopefully he will return to Moreau often!

Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Easter (C)

Today is the Fourth Sunday of Easter, which is also called ‘Good Shepherd Sunday’ because every year on this Sunday we hear a Gospel in which Jesus casts Himself as shepherd of the flock: “They hear my voice,” Jesus says in tonight’s Gospel, “I know them, and they follow me.”

Jesus not only knows us, He knows us more intimately than we know ourselves! He calls each and everyone one of us by name. And if we respond to His grace, then we recognize the sound of His voice, and we come to know and follow Him alone.

Now to be honest, much of this could be said of all shepherds. Shepherds can tell their sheep from the sheep of another flock, and the sheep of his flock can in fact recognize the voice of their shepherd from all others and they follow only him.

But Jesus goes on to say: “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish.” Now this is a whole new level of care for the flock! Jesus, the Good Shepherd, calls the flock to Himself and gives us everlasting life. The sheep of Jesus’ flock will never die!

Thus, Jesus is the Good Shepherd not only because He knows His sheep, and His sheep know and follow Him, but because He gives His sheep everlasting life. And how does he do that? Jesus willingly lays down His life to save the sheep. And this is, of course, above and beyond the call of duty for any normal shepherd. Shepherds certainly defend their flocks from danger, but they don’t normally die to defend them!

In laying down His life, Jesus is not only the Good Shepherd, He is Himself the Lamb of God whose blood sets us free – the lamb of the Passover in Exodus. These two images, the Lamb and the Shepherd, are, in the end, absolutely inseparable and they come together beautifully in our second reading from St. John’s Book of Revelation.

St. John says that the Lamb of God “stands at the center of God’s throne” and the Lamb Himself shepherds the great multitude, the flock, which comes “from every nation, race, people and tongue.”

We can say that Jesus is the Good Shepherd by virtue of the fact that He is the Lamb of God – He has paid for the undisputed right to lead us, precisely by laying down His life to save us and giving us a share in His eternal life.

Because this Sunday is known as Good Shepherd Sunday, today also marks World Day of Prayer for Vocations to the Priesthood. We recall today that God promised, through the Prophet Jeremiah, to always give us shepherds after His own heart.

We find ourselves praying that more young men will answer God’s call to the priesthood, exactly at a time when the Church and the priesthood are enduring a time of great trial. Though much has been done to ensure the safety of young people in the Church, we are again experiencing a wave media scrutiny of abuse cases perpetrated by priests in previous decades.

It is a time of disappointment, and embarrassment, and even anger for many lay faithful and for so many thousands of good and holy priests. So it is perhaps, an appropriate time to raise a crucial question, first raised years ago by the Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner: “Why would a modern man want to become or remain a priest today?”

Rahner begins to answer his own question by saying that it’s not about “the great works of the church in the service of justice and peace, the great universities and the great movements and programs.” Instead, he says, it’s because priests have “a readiness for unselfish service, a readiness for prayer . . . and a calm acceptance of death in whatever form it may come, in total dedication to the following of Christ crucified.”

There are so many examples of priests who have faithfully lived this total dedication to Christ crucified – who have been good shepherds after His own heart:

Fr. Emil Kapaun, was a priest of Wichita, Kansas and an Army chaplain in the Korean War. Captured and held in a prison camp in the North, he stole food from the commissary at night, knowing full well that he would be shot on sight if discovered, so that he could feed his starving men. He carried to the latrine, men who had dysentery and cleaned them himself. When depression gripped many of the men in his unit, he tried everything to keep them positive and hopeful – he even deliberately said things to make them angry knowing that the experience of anger would bring them out of themselves. Eventually he himself contracted phlebitis and the guards took him away to die. The last thing his men heard was Fr. Kapaun assuring the guards that he held no animosity or hatred for them.

Fr. Stanley Rother was a priest of Oklahoma City and a missionary in Guatemala. He translated the Bible into the native language of the area and built a hospital and parish for the people he served. He carried on his ministry even as other priests were murdered by government forces. Told that his name was on the death list, he was urged to return to Oklahoma, but he stayed in the U.S. only for a short time. Knowing that it would mean certain death, he returned to Guatemala, telling his parents: “The shepherd can’t run. I have to go back.” Two months later, in July of 1981, gunmen burst into his home and shot Fr. Rother twice in the head.

Of course, we don’t have to limit ourselves to these very dramatic stories of martyrdom. We can also think of any number of priests, any number of ways that priests we know have laid down their lives, often in obscure and hidden ways, so that the People of God can have life to the full:

Think of priests who daily visit hospitals, often into the wee hours of the night, keeping vigil at the bedside of death. Think of priests who serve as prison chaplains, proclaiming over and over the Gospel of forgiveness to those the world deems unforgivable. Think of priests in parishes, who work daily to awaken in even a few people a small spark of faith, hope and charity. Think of priests in residence halls, who comfort the homesick freshman, and counsel the senior discerning their future, and stay up all night caring for and worrying about the sophomore who’s made some really bad decisions with alcohol.

“Why would a modern man want to become or to remain a priest today?”

“The deepest and most enduring reason why a man wants to become and remain a priest is the person of Jesus Christ. In the depths of every authentic priest echoes the Lord’s question to Peter: ‘Do you love me more than these?’ If our love for Jesus Christ is truly genuine, then there must stir within us the desire to be like him. As St. Augustine said, the essence of religion is to imitate Him whom we adore: to love is to be like.”

To be a priest is to be a shepherd in the model of Christ, who was also inseparably the Lamb of God. Like Christ, priests are only shepherds because they are also lambs of sacrifice who lay down their lives out of love for God’s flock.

It is only because this is true that the stories of abuse by a small percentage of priests have had such a wide-reaching and devastating effect. The guilt of these abusers is indeed all the greater because they so terribly violated their high calling to be shepherds after His own heart. They were instead wolves in sheep’s clothing; making members of their flock victims instead of becoming victims themselves in imitation of Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, the Priest and the Victim.

But none of this scandal, as terribly real as it is, can negate the essential truth at the heart of the priesthood. And this is why I firmly believe that this is a great time to be a priest. Yes, even good and holy and innocent priests are undergoing a moment of trial and humiliation. But that means it is a time for us, like the Apostles in Acts, to give thanks that we have been counted worthy to suffer for Christ and His Church.

It is a time for men to step forward who are willing to be martyrs – men like Emil Kapaun and Stanley Rother – men who are willing to spend their lives as witnesses to the love of the Good Shepherd – men who will humbly and generously embrace the mystery of the Cross so that their sacrifices, large and small, can bring life to the men and women they serve and lead.

There are men with that kind of love, and courage, and dedication here tonight, in this chapel and across this campus. We pray that more of them will hear the voice of the Good Shepherd, and answer the call to love Him by following Him and imitating Him as priests.

This homily is based on, and includes quotations from, a speech given by retired Archbishop John Quinn to the National Federation of Priests’ Councils, Houston, Texas, April 13, 2010.

Wedding Weekend in Philadelphia

As I have already mentioned, I spent the past weekend away from campus to preside at the wedding of James and Tess Caputo. James was a junior in my section when I was an R.A. in Siegfried Hall during my senior year at Notre Dame. I was honored to be invited to preside at his wedding in Philadelphia.

I hope there will be pictures to come from the wedding and reception, but for now, here are some shots of the lovely and historic church: St. John the Evangelist. This downtown parish was the original cathedral of the diocese of Philadelphia . . .

and so it was the cathedral church from which St. John Neumann, the sainted bishop of Philadelphia, was buried. His mitre is displayed in the church's nave:

It was also the church in which St. Katherine Drexel prayed to the Blessed Mother (at the altar below) as she was discerning her vocation. Drexel went on to enter religious life and use her family fortune to serve African American and Native American Catholics.

This altar was the only part of the original church to survive a fire that killed four fireman. These men are memorialized in a garden just outside the church.

After spending the wedding weekend with James and Tess' families, I spent Sunday enjoying the lovely Philadelphia weather with Scott Cullen. We took a long walk around the city, over the Ben Franklin Bridge and into Trenton, New Jersey.

While there, we had these great views of the USS New Jersey:

Later in the evening, we rewarded ourselves with dinner at Tria's Cafe and dessert at Naked Chocolate. It seems that Philadelphia has quite the culinary scene and Scott was happy to give me a tour of the kind of places I so miss from my time in Portland. As always it was wonderful to share good food, drink and conversation with Scott.

My travels were, however, only just beginning . . .

Notre Dame Eucharistic Procession

I have been on the road this weekend (more on that later) so I missed one of the great events on the campus of the University of Notre Dame. Several years ago, a group of devout students and our very own Fr. Kevin Russeasu, CSC organized an outdoor Eucharistic procession. It had literally been decades since such an event had taken place on the campus once called "The City of the Blessed Sacrament." Thanks be to God, this has once again become an annual tradition.

Our Old Collegians and Moreau seminarians served, including the roommate-thurifers-extraordinaire, Chris Brennan and Braydn Harsha . . .

and the procession made it's way from the Basilica to several outdoor altars . . .

. . . at which the faithful adored the Blessed Sacrament and received Benediction. Here Frs. Kevin Russeau, CSC and Jim Gallagher, CSC pray at one of the stational altars:

It looks as if it was a wonderful day. I only wish I could have been there to participate. But I've had a lovely weekend, to be sure, which I'll tell you about before long. In the meanwhile, many thanks to Diane Querciagrossa of Holy Cross College and the staff of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart for these wonderful pictures I've shared with you.

In Service to One, In Service to All

The Knights of Columbus at the University of Notre Dame are celebrating their 100th anniversary, and they have been hosting a series of events to celebrate. As I was away this weekend, I missed several of the main centennial events - but before I departed I was able to participate in one of the most important events: a visit to campus and lecture by the Supreme Knight, Carl Anderson.

I was happy that Ken Hallenius was still visiting after ordination weekend, so he was able to join me for the lecture. If you follow this link you can view some photos of the event. See if you recognize anyone in pictures five and six.

The webpage of the Knights of Columbus has a wonderful article on college councils, including the Council 1477, Notre Dame's 100 year-old council, which is in fact the oldest and largest college council (It should be noted that The University of Portland has one of the newest college councils, which is named in honor of Blessed Basil Moreau, CSC - and Ken Hallenius is a founding member of that council).

Ordination Weekend 2010

This past weekend, the Holy Cross community was thrilled to celebrate the ordination of our brothers, Rev. Gerry Olinger, CSC and Rev. Kevin Grove, CSC. You may recall that I had the privilege of giving Gerry and Kevin their retreat in preparation for final vows last summer. It was a great joy to see these dear friends and brothers ordained and to celebrate with their families and friends.

One of the most unique gatherings of the weekend took place Saturday morning before the ordination Mass.

Gerry Olinger's law school classmates Joe Reimer, Katie Bouton and Dave Brown, together with Katie's husband Casey, organized a tailgate party just as they did three years ago on the morning on my ordination. Thankfully, this year the weather was much nicer and the crowd that gathered had a blast.

When these great friends were in law school here at Notre Dame I had the pleasure of being welcomed into their tailgating tradition on football weekends. Long ago, at one of those game day events, it was decided that having a tailgate party would be the only appropriate way for us to mark the much more joyful occasion of our ordinations. I'm sure Gerry is as grateful as I was for such a tremendous show of support, and such a rousing good time.

The weekend was also a chance to reconnect with Holy Cross confreres from near and far. Father Michael Wurtz, CSC was in from Rome - and below, Bro. Paul Bednarsik, CSC joined Fr. Greg Haake, CSC, Fr. Nate Wills, CSC (in from Madison, WI) and former seminarian Dave Haalm for an evening social.

The men of Old College and Moreau also had a good time relaxing and celebrating, though they may also have been a bit tired from all of the work they helped do to host our many guests. Brendan, Ryan and especially Braydn seem a bit tuckered out.

Another great highlight of the weekend was that there were so many friends and colleagues from the University of Portland in to supprt the hall director of Villa Maria, Fr. Gerry Olinger, csc. Among others, Ken Hallenius, Mike Walsh, Brenda Greiner, Natalie Shank and Paul Myers were out from Portland for the weekend.

After the ordinations we all gathered again on Sunday morning for Fr. Gerry and Fr. Kevin's first Masses. Here, Joe Reimer greets Fr. Gerry after his Mass at the Basilica.

And as the pace of the weekend slowed, the men of Holy Cross parish hosted a casual barbecue for a few of the pilgrims from Portland - and for those of us who live in exile from Portland . . . including Charlie and Rebecca Keller.

On Sunday evening, Frs. Gerry and Kevin preached and presided together at Siegfried Hall Mass. Though neither of them have ever lived in Siegfried, both have had the chance to assist with previous Siegfried Hall retreats and became good friends with a number of the men there. Peter and Jake who joined me on the pilgrimage to Rome provided music for the liturgy . . .

. . . and after Mass, Frs. Kevin and Gerry were given their very own set of horns, making them honorary Ramblers forever. It was a proud moment for Fr. John Conley and for me!

Finally, on Monday and Tuesday evenings, Fr. Gerry and Fr. Kevin each came to say a Mass for the men of Old College. It was wonderful for our seminarians to have some time to pray with these newly ordained men who are such friends and role models. It was also a chance for all of us to ask the newly ordained for their first priestly blessings. Here Fr. Kevin blesses Karl Romkema.

From start to finish it was a long and wonderful weekend of celebration. Now the real work of their priesthood begins. Let us continue to support them, and all priests, with our prayers.

Easter at Notre Dame

A Blessed Easter to one and all. He is Risen, as He said - Alleluia!

After celebrating a lovely Triduum at the Basilica, I had the great privilege and pleasure of preaching the Easter Vigil. Having worked as a sacristan at the Basilica for so many Easters, it was a very special honor to be able to concelebrate all of the liturgies as a priest and especially to preach the great Vigil.

After the Vigil we celebrated well into the night at Moreau Seminary. The post-Vigil soiree at Moreau is always one of the highlights of the year.

This year, as I walked to the party, I had a humorous encounter with a Notre Dame student (in the custody of security) who had been 'celebrating' the Lord's Resurrection with some friends and decided to go for a swim in the lake. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, I presumed he was reenacting part of the Lord's Passion as recorded by Mark: "A certain young man was following Him, wearing nothing but a linen cloth. They caught hold of him, but he left the linen cloth and ran off naked." God bless our rectors, is all I have to say!

By Easter Sunday morning, our Old College chapel was appropriately decorated . . .

and we had lovely weather to enjoy the spring flowers that have been in bloom.

For the men who remained during the holiday, Fr. Kevin planned an Easter lunch - and Joe and Dan helped out by getting the turkey into the deep frier.

Fr. Kevin did the carving, with help from Mike and his dad who was visiting from Detroit with Mike's mom, and three of his brothers.

There were, of course, plenty of Peeps . . .

. . . and lots of wonderful people.

The celebration continued at Corby Hall later in the evening with a social and supper - and then it was back to church for the student Mass at 9:00 pm. Thankfully, the University remains on holiday tomorrow, and we can ease back into things on Tuesday. We have a short week to rest up and prepare for Ordinations next weekend!

Homily for the Easter Vigil (C)

“Why do you seek the living one among the dead?”

“At daybreak on the first day of week,” the holy women who have come to the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus, find the stone rolled back, and the tomb empty, and two angels who greet them with this question.

It is perhaps the strangest question ever asked. The question is premised on the assertion that Jesus, whom these women have seen – with their own eyes – arrested, tortured, crucified and buried, is now no longer dead but is instead the Living One.

The angels’ question challenges the ancient belief that death is final, that death wins in the end, that the deceased are dead and gone forever. In reality, the angels’ question is also an affirmation, a confession of belief in the Good News of Easter and the central tenant of Christian faith: “He is not here - He has been raised.”

Though they struggled to believe and to make sense of this amazing news, the Apostles and the earliest disciples ultimately came to believe so firmly in Christ’s Resurrection from the dead, that they were willing to die rather than to deny its truth.

“Why do you seek the living one among the dead?”

St. Luke preserves this great question in his Gospel because it is posed to you and me, even now, and we too must come to answer this question with the conviction of our faith and with our very lives.

We not only need to believe and to proclaim that Jesus cannot be found among the dead, that He lives to die no more – we must also come to realize that we cannot find ourselves, our lives, our meaning, or our satisfaction in any of the things that this passing world has to offer.

We do indeed, from time to time, seek our selves, and our lives, among the dead. We seek our lives in different forms of physical pleasure and in the innumerable possessions we accumulate or long for. We look for our identity and meaning in our occupation, our income, our education, our politics, or our social standing.

But all these things ultimately belong to the world that is dying and even now passing away. They have no power to give us life, or meaning, or to define who we are. So the angels’ question echoes in our reading from the Book of the prophet Isaiah, when he asks: “Why spend your money for that which is not bread, your wages for that which fails to satisfy?”

Brothers and sisters, every aspect of our vigil this evening, every story we have heard from salvation history attests that “our living is from Christ, our worth is from Christ, our hope is in Christ.” “He is the beginning, and the end, the Alpha and the Omega,” and all times and seasons belong to Him alone. Only Christ, the Living One raised to die no more, can give us life, and meaning and hope.

“Why do you seek the living one among the dead?”

Isaiah’s prophecy invites us on a different path, shows us where we ought to seek the Living One, and find the life and meaning for which we long: “All you who are thirsty, come to the water. You who have no money: come and receive grain and eat. Come without paying and without cost, drink wine and milk.”

Friends, the water we have come to is the font of Baptism. The grain we have received and eaten is the Bread of Life. In the sacramental life of the Church, in Baptism and Eucharist, we have come to share in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. His victory has robbed death of its power, and ushered in a new creation, in which we find our life, our meaning, our very selves.

In his Letter to the Romans, St. Paul powerfully summarizes this essential baptismal faith:

“We were indeed buried with Christ through baptism to death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life! If, then, we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him. You too must think of yourselves as being dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus.”

Over the past forty days of Lent, we have been preparing ourselves for this night of vigil in which we celebrate Jesus’ victory over sin and death, and renew our Baptisms, which claimed us for Christ and gave us a share in His kingship, His priesthood, and His prophetic mission.

We have, in a sense, asked ourselves the angels’ question: “Why do you look for the living one among the dead?” We have tried to put aside our attachments to the things of this dying world, and so make our lives more closely conform to the faith we profess: that “He has been raised” and that we can only find true life in Him.

We have with us, a number of men and women who just two weeks ago were Confirmed in this Baptismal faith and shared with us for the first time in the Eucharist. And we have six Elect of God – Erik and Tedge, Stephanie and Blake, Sam and Christina – who will, tonight, die with Christ in the waters of Baptism, and rise with Him to newness of life. They will eat and drink the Lord’s Body and Blood and be given a share in His everlasting life.

Over the course of their lives, and especially during their preparation for this night, these Elect have seen Christian faith and service modeled for them by the spouses and friends, dorm-mates and teammates, RAs and professors who have accompanied them on their journey.

They have given up the futility of looking for the Living One among the dead. They have become convinced that they can only find their life, by losing their life, by laying their life down in love, by living not for themselves, but “for God in Christ Jesus.”

We welcome these brothers and sisters and give thanks to God for calling them to faith and fellowship with us in the Body of Christ. Dear friends, as we all profess the faith with them this evening, and renew our own Baptismal vows, and share the Eucharist as nourishment, we pray that we will become more and more like the Apostles, and the holy women of tonight’s Gospel – that our witness to the truth of the Resurrection may reach to the ends of the earth.

May our words and our deeds ask a desperate world, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” And may every aspect of our lives proclaim the Faith that is the answer to the world’s longing: “He is not dead – He has been raised!” Alleluia!