Salve Regina, Mater Misericordiae.
The resurrection of our Lord was an unexpected thing,
even to our Lord's disciples, save for really his mother.
In all the accounts of the resurrection,
we hear from just about everybody but Mary.
Because Our Lady is not in any of those stories,
simply because she wasn't going to the tomb with the holy women,
she didn't need to go and look at the tomb
after the women came back
and she didn't need to go and look at the tomb
after the women came back and she didn't need to go and look at the tomb.
She didn't need to go and look at the tomb after the women came back
and told the disciples as Peter and John did.
She wasn't on the road to Emmaus
when the two disciples had lost hope
and were leaving because our Lord was dead.
All the stories are really about slowness to believe,
about the fact that...
It wasn't expected.
And yet our Lord had spoken of his resurrection,
his death and resurrection.
He had prepared his apostles and disciples.
He had spoken of his death.
He had rebuked Peter because Peter had said that it was a bad idea.
He even called Peter Satan for that reason.
He took Peter Jacob,
James and John on the Mount of Tabor
and there was transfigured before them
in light with Moses,
the giver of the law,
and Elijah the prophet there beside him.
It must have looked,
we might imagine,
like it did on the morning of the resurrection
with our Lord there
transfigured before his apostles.
He prepared them.
Even on their way down from Mount Tabor,
he told them not to tell anybody what they had seen
until he had risen from the dead
and they discussed among themselves
what he meant by being raised from the dead.
And so we hear of how the holy women went to the tomb
and saw the angels
and he announced the resurrection to them.
And he said to them,
don't be amazed.
Why are you amazed?
You seek Jesus of Nazareth,
the crucified.
He has been raised.
He is not here.
In other accounts,
we're told that the angel tells them that he has risen
as he had told them.
Kind of polite rebuke
for their lack of faith.
So we pass from darkness to light
on this most solemn of nights.
We pass from the darkness of doubt and sinfulness
to the light of faith, grace, forgiveness, and holiness.
And as part of the Easter liturgy
for this evening's Mass
that I'd like to go over just briefly
because we do it every year
and because we do it every year,
and because we do it every year,
and because we do it every year,
and because we do it every year,
the way we do it here,
we have the fire outside
and you're inside.
You can't really see much
of what's going on here a little bit,
but you don't see very much.
And it's a fundamental part of this celebration
and it's about this passage
from darkness to light.
So we begin with the fire outside,
the Easter fire,
which the priest blesses,
saying,
we share in the light of your glory
through your Son,
the light of your Son,
the light of the world.
Make this new fire holy
and inflame us with new hope.
Purify our minds by this Easter celebration
and bring us one day
to the feast of eternal light.
So we pray for hope
for the light of Christ
and for the purification of our minds.
And then the priest prepares the candle
by tracing on it the cross
and the alpha and the omega
and the date,
the year,
2009.
He says,
Christ, yesterday, today,
as he traces the vertical arm,
the beginning and the end,
as he traces the horizontal arm
and the alpha and omega,
all time belongs to him
as he traces the first number in the year
and all the ages,
the second number.
To him be glory and power,
the third number,
through every age forever.
Amen.
And then he places,
in the wounds along the bars of the cross,
he places in the spot where the wounds would be,
with these words,
grains of incense.
By his holy and glorious wounds,
may Christ the Lord guard us
and keep us.
Amen.
So everything converges on the resurrection.
And when we begin in the darkness,
we proclaim our faith
that there is no salvation
except in Jesus Christ
and that without him,
we are in the dark.
And when the candle comes into the church,
it's a sign of the resurrection
and of Christ
and of his grace.
And we consecrate our whole life,
our all of time,
to our Lord
as we begin this Easter celebration.
As we begin this really,
this new time
in the history of the world
in which we live
in the time of fulfillment,
the power and glory of the Lord
is present already to us now.
And every Mass
is a celebration of the resurrection.
Every time we participate in the Mass
and receive Holy Communion,
we are being incorporated,
we are being incorporated into Christ.
We receive not only grace,
but we receive the crucified
and resurrected Lord himself.
And so tonight we deck out the church
and the liturgy and our lives
in the solemnity and glory of this season.
And yet the reality of it is with us every day.
Amen.
Amen.
The externals of the liturgy
hopefully reached their peak
at the Easter Vigil.
And yet the truth of it
is with us all the time
each and every day of our life
and especially when we come before our Lord
in the Eucharist
and receive him in Holy Communion.
And that's really the challenge, isn't it?
That we should understand and believe that
and experience it
and receive him in Holy Communion.
And that's really the challenge, isn't it?
And that's really the challenge, isn't it?
And that's really the challenge, isn't it?
And that's really the challenge, isn't it?
And that's really the challenge, isn't it?
And that's really the challenge, isn't it?
And that's really the challenge, isn't it?
On Good Friday, just as much as we do
on Easter Sunday.
And Our Lady did.
Our Lady stood at the foot of the cross
and saw beyond what everyone else saw.
Everyone else saw Our Lord bloody
and beaten and broken and dying.
Saw his heart opened and the flood coming out.
But they didn't know that he was dead.
But they didn't expect something beyond that.
If they had expected it, even though our Lord had prepared them for it,
we wouldn't have heard about anybody on Easter Sunday
except that the fact that our Lord appeared to them after his resurrection.
And so somehow, through a life of prayer, through a sacramental life,
through our confidence in God, through our consecration to the Blessed Mother,
through our rosaries and our willingness to turn our hearts and our minds
towards our Blessed Mother each day, even in the midst of difficulty,
in spite of the fact that sometimes we fall,
we have to find this grace, the power of our Lord's resurrection
that is with us each and every day.
If we saw it, we would think differently.
We'd be more patient.
We'd carry our cross.
We would be more generous.
And we'd be full of hope.
And so that's what we pray for tonight on Easter.
It's what we ask the Lord for.
That's what we beg our Blessed Lady for as we continue in this celebration of the Eucharist
and as we rejoice in the truth and the power of God
that is manifested in us.
In this glorious celebration of our Lord's resurrection.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
© transcript Emily Beynon