“Humble Gratitude and Obedience: the Path to Pleasing God and to Life with Him”
Homily for the Easter Vigil, Year “C”
April 19, 2025; St. Mary’s Cathedral
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Introduction
“O truly blessed night, worthy alone to know the time and hour when Christ rose from the underworld!” Thus sings the Easter Proclamation, the Exultet (as it is called, from the first word in Latin), with which we began our Easter Vigil service after the blessing of the fire. Truly, it is one of the most cherished and moving hymns in the Church’s entire repertoire. The hymn sings about all that this night means: banishing the darkness of sin; breaking the prison-bars of death; the night that is as bright as day and full of gladness; the night that dispels wickedness, washes faults away, restores innocence to the fallen and joy to mourners, drives out hatred, and fosters concord.
Signs Then and Now
This night is truly unique, different from all others. While the uniqueness is found in the elaborate liturgy that is this Easter Vigil, that is really a reflection of how unique this night is in terms of salvation history. And it all comes down to this moment, the moment of this night. And what was the sign that God gave of what this night means? An empty tomb.
That empty tomb is a sign that points to the reality of what happened this night: we might say it means “mission accomplished,” or “plan completed.” God had been preparing the world for very many centuries for this moment to complete His plan of salvation for us, and the empty tomb is the sign of that. Notice, though, that the sign alone is not enough for belief, for the sign must be interpreted and understood. As St. Luke recounts the story for us, not all of the disciples believed immediately upon seeing the empty tomb. The women believed, but the apostles were slow to take their word for it, calling their story “nonsense,” very strong condescending language indeed! We need, then, to understand all that this empty tomb means, and all that happened in leading up to this moment in preparation for it.
The abundance of readings in this Easter Vigil service walks us through all of that time of preparation. It begins with the beginning, the creation of the world, in which the Scriptures portray for us how God intended the world to be, in peace and harmony, with us, His human creation, living in happiness with Him and in harmony with Him, with one another, and with all of His creation. Of course, we know the story does not end there. We rebelled, but God did not abandon us; instead, He came to our rescue.
We hear about how God came to the rescue of His people of old, the night in which they fled from slavery in Egypt, the Passover which the Jewish people still commemorate to this day. God’s fulfillment of this on this night, though, is something greater still, as the Easter Proclamation rings out to us: the night in which the one true Lamb is slain, and “whose Blood anoints the door posts of believers”; by “pouring out his own dear Blood,” our Lord “paid Adam’s debt to the eternal Father” for us.
Lessons from Abraham
We see hidden meanings all throughout God’s actions with his original Chosen People of old. And if we pay close attention to the stories as Scripture relates them to us, and dig deep into the text, we can find all different levels of meaning to enlighten us on the path to God. We see this reflected especially in the story of God’s call to Abraham to offer his son Isaac in sacrifice.
The meaning we immediately perceive is that this is a test of Abraham’s faith. As the story begins, “God put Abraham to the test.” And so: is Abraham willing to give up what is most precious to him, to sacrifice what is most valuable for him, and his only chance to establish a lineage of his own (remember, Isaac was his only son from his wife Sarah). The way the story ends teaches us a valuable lesson: for those who obey God, and follow His way, God will always be there for them to work all things out for the good.
And yet there is also a symbolic, or analogical, meaning to the text which we know from the early Fathers of the Church. We see symbolized here the sacrifice of the Son of God himself. Notice that Abraham goes to the place of sacrifice on a donkey, the same animal upon which Jesus rode into Jerusalem, the place of his own self-sacrifice. Isaac carried the wood for the sacrifice himself up the hill where it was going to take place, as Christ carried the cross to Calvary. But then God provides a ram in place of Isaac for Abraham to sacrifice, as Abraham himself had prophesied, “God himself will provide the sheep for the holocaust,” foreshadowing Christ the true Lamb of God who offered himself in sacrifice for us. In the end God blesses Abraham abundantly because, as God tells him, “you acted as you did in not withholding from me your beloved son.”
This is God’s action for us: He did not withhold His own beloved Son from us, to reconcile us back to Him from whom we had strayed because of our waywardness. As the Exultet sings to us: “O charity beyond all telling, to ransom a slave you gave away your Son!” What adequate human response can there be to such a lavish outpouring of God’s grace, other than humble gratitude and obedience? That is, when such gratitude and obedience are not simply a concept that remains in the mind but are lived out in all aspects of our life. Which brings us to the third level of meaning in this story, the moral significance it has for us.
It might seem strange to us, even masochistic, that God would ask His chosen servant to offer his son in sacrifice to Him. Let us recall that in this part of the world in those ancient times pagan religions commonly practiced child sacrifice. God staying the hand of Abraham to keep him from actually slaying his son means that God is putting an end to this diabolical practice. In revealing Himself to Abraham, and calling Abraham’s descendants to be His Chosen People, God is revealing His higher law, the truth by which we can live well and in peace in this world and, in the end, forever with Him in heaven.
The Lessons for Us
Now, what does all of this mean for us personally? A lot! First of all, the test of faith: are we ready to forsake what we value but is in fact holding us back from following God wholeheartedly? Certainly there are the bad things that we do, patterns of sin and selfishness and vice. We can become very attached to such things and find it hard to let go of them. But we make ourselves incapable of receiving God’s blessing unless we do so. And sometimes we are called to give up good things for an even greater good, such as responding to a vocation in life. There are many good paths which one can choose, but to decide literally means to cut away all the other possibilities in order to pursue one, for God’s glory and ultimately our own happiness.
An attitude of humble gratitude and obedience for all that Christ has done for us is in fact nonexistent unless it is manifested in our lives. This is living out the moral meaning of the story of Abraham. When we see with the eyes of faith we can perceive what others cannot, and can preserve ourselves from falling into the traps of the evil one that are so alluring in the world in which we live. Our own contemporary society also sacrifices children in its own ways, in different ways. Do we have the vision to see that? Do we have the wisdom and charity and compassion to help others understand the many and varied traps that the evil one sets for us, and guide them away from these pitfalls in life so that they might know the beauty and freedom of living in Christ? If we see with the eyes of faith and live accordingly, we will.
We also heard from the prophet Baruch tonight, who proclaims to us: “Blessed are we … for what pleases God is known to us.” Notice how this is phrased: “is known to us,” not “we know what pleases God” nor that it “is known by us.” No, it is not our doing but is made known to us by God; it is only by God that we are able to know what pleases Him, and how blessed it is to please Him. Is this a source of blessing for us, to please God? If we see with the eyes of faith, it will be.
Conclusion
We are grateful to a good number of our brothers and sisters who have come to this vision of faith, and will be baptized and initiated into the Christian mysteries tonight. They understand the blessing of being a part of God’s people; the prophecy from Ezekiel will be fulfilled in their lives: God “will put [His] spirit within [them] and make [them] live by [His] statutes, careful to observe [His] decrees.” God tells His people, “you shall be my people and I will be your God.” This is what it means to live in a covenant relationship with God, to live by His higher law, showing ourselves to be His people, and, in so doing, we then we know the blessing of pleasing Him.
RESUMEN EN ESPAÑOL
Esta noche es verdaderamente única, diferente a todas las demás, pues es la noche en que se cumple nuestra salvación. ¿Y cuál es la señal? Un sepulcro vacío. Sin embargo, observen que la señal por sí sola no basta para creer, pues debe interpretarse y comprenderse. Como nos relata San Lucas, no todos los discípulos creyeron inmediatamente al ver el sepulcro vacío. Necesitamos, entonces, comprender todo lo que significa este sepulcro vacío y todo lo que sucedió para prepararlo. Y podemos comprender mucho de esto a partir de la historia del llamado de Dios a Abraham para ofrecer a su hijo Isaac en sacrificio, como se relata en la segunda lectura.
El significado que percibimos inmediatamente es que esta es una prueba para la fe de Abraham. Al comienzo de la historia, «Dios le puso una prueba a Abraham». ¿Está Abraham dispuesto a renunciar a lo que más le importa, a sacrificar lo que es más valioso para él y a su única oportunidad de establecer un linaje propio (recordemos que Isaac era su único hijo con su esposa Sara)? La forma en que termina la historia nos enseña una valiosa lección: para aquellos que obedecen a Dios y siguen Su camino, Dios siempre estará allí para ayudarlos a resolver todas las cosas para bien.
¿Qué hay de nosotros, cuando Dios pone a prueba nuestra fe? ¿Estamos dispuestos a renunciar a lo que valoramos, pero que en realidad nos impide seguir a Dios de todo corazón? Ciertamente están las cosas malas que hacemos, patrones de pecado, egoísmo y vicio. Podemos llegar a estar muy apegados a esas cosas y nos resulta difícil desprendernos de ellas. Pero nos hacemos incapaces de recibir la bendición de Dios a menos que lo hagamos. Y a veces estamos llamados a renunciar a cosas buenas por un bien aún mayor, como responder a una vocación en la vida. Hay muchos buenos caminos que uno puede elegir, pero decidir literalmente significa cortar todos los demás para seguir uno de ellos, para la gloria de Dios y, en última instancia, para nuestra propia felicidad.
También vimos en esta historia de Abraham una lección acerca de lo que Dios hará por nosotros para reconciliarnos con Él. Isaac llevó él mismo la leña para el sacrificio hasta la colina donde iba a tener lugar, como Cristo llevó la cruz al Calvario; pero luego Dios provee un carnero en lugar de Isaac para que Abraham lo sacrifique, prefigurando a Cristo, el verdadero Cordero de Dios que se ofreció a sí mismo en sacrificio por nosotros; y al final Dios bendice abundantemente a Abraham por, como le dice Dios, “no haberme negado a tu hijo único”. Esto mismo ha hecho Dios con nosotros: no nos ha negado a nosotros a su Hijo único para reconciliarnos con Aquel de quien nos habíamos desviado a causa de nuestra rebeldía.
Pero la pregunta persiste: ¿por qué Dios le pediría a su siervo elegido, Abraham, que le ofreciera a su hijo en sacrificio? ¿Por qué pediría Dios algo tan horrible? Recordemos que en esta parte del mundo, en aquellos tiempos antiguos, las religiones paganas practicaban comúnmente el sacrificio de niños. Que Dios detuviera la mano de Abraham para evitar que matara a su hijo significa que Dios está poniendo fin a esta práctica diabólica. Al revelarse a Abraham y llamar a sus descendientes a ser Su Pueblo Elegido, Dios revela Su ley superior, es decir, la verdad por la cual podemos vivir bien y en paz en este mundo y, al final, para siempre con Él en el cielo.
¿Qué respuesta humana adecuada puede haber ante tan abundante efusión de la gracia de Dios, aparte de la humilde gratitud y la obediencia? Esto significa ver con los ojos de la fe, que nos permite percibir lo que otros no pueden, y así evitar caer en las trampas del maligno, tan seductoras en el mundo en que vivimos. La visión de la fe también nos da la sabiduría, la caridad y la compasión necesarias para ayudar a otros a comprender las trampas del pecado y guiarlos por el camino correcto para que conozcan la belleza y la libertad de vivir en Cristo.
Agradecemos a un buen número de nuestros hermanos que han llegado a esta visión de fe y serán bautizados e iniciados en los misterios cristianos esta noche. Nos alegramos con ellos en esta noche bendita y cantamos con ellos el Aleluya Pascual: «Te damos gracias, Señor, porque eres bueno, porque tu misericordia es eterna». Amén.