Easter Vigil Homily 2007
Rev. Caedmon Holmes, O.S.B.

In texts at Mass we sometimes hear the expression "the Paschal mystery," and you may well be wondering what it means.  Here is a definition of it made by a monk of our Order who was professor of theology in Rome for many years in the second half of the twentieth century.

But first, before the definition, let me say something about the term "Paschal:"  in Hebrew the word for the Passover is pesach, which would be practically impossible to pronounce in Greek or Latin, so already in ancient times the Jews of the Greco-Roman world called it pascha.  The adjective from that is "paschal," so it means "having to do with Passover," or in Christian terms, "having to do with Easter." Jesus died and rose from the dead at Passover time, which will have been God's intention: to take the Jewish Passover and fulfill it, so giving it an even deeper meaning.

And while we are at it, a word about the expression "mystery:" it does not mean what we mean by it in ordinary language.  In the religious sense a mystery is something which is understood only by those who have been initiated into it.  A mystery is full of meaning and blessing.  The mysteries give life.

The definition of the Paschal Mystery goes like this:

The Paschal mystery is the fact that Jesus is not only the incarnate Son of God

("incarnate" means "made flesh," "made human flesh," that is "made human" )

but that He is incarnate and lived a human life in the form of a slave,

(I remember hearing when I was young that all the Son of God needed to do to redeem us was to become a human being: the Incarnation would have been enough.  But evidently God does not think so, because Christ lived a human life well into adulthood, and in the form of a slave, that is, not free, but vulnerable to all the things humans are vulnerable to, even living in an occupied land, in the end executed by foreign Roman soldiers, condemned to death by a Roman official, the representative of the  emperor.)

And, furthermore, he died and has been raised from the dead: the Kyrios.

(Kyrios is the Greek term used in the New Testament for "the Lord."  We say Kyrie eleison, Lord have mercy.  "Jesus Christ is Lord, Kyrios, to the glory of God the Father," we are told by St Paul.  "God has given him the name which is above every name," i.e., God's own name, "the Lord," the Kyrios.)

Palm Sunday's second reading at Mass is taken from St Paul's Letter to the Philippians:  "Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not consider being equal to God something to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in the likeness of men, and being found human in appearance he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross; therefore God has highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend of those in the heavens and those on earth and those under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Kyrios to the glory of God the Father."

More precisely, the Paschal Mystery is the fact that He, as Kyrios, is now seated at the right hand of the Father, continuously and gloriously exercising---always as a human being--- His mediatorship as High Priest;

NOW He is seated there and acting as mediator for us with the Father:  now and always, ever since His death and resurrection.  He is our High Priest, representing us and acting on our behalf with the Father.  Of course, He represents us perfectly, because He is one of us, and in fact the head of the human race---Adam has been displaced from that position. His priesthood is continuous and GLORIOUS, which I take to mean that it is completely and triumphantly successful: the Father is happy to listen favorably to whatever Jesus says to Him about us and in our behalf.

But this is not all that Jesus does with His glorified human nature---there is a second thing:

The Paschal Mystery also is the fact that, by means of His humanity, including His glorious body, He communicates to us the divine life, with which this humanity of His is not only utterly full, but of which it is also the resplendent and sole dispenser, causing us---and, in some way, the whole world---

to cross over--- or to be crossing over more and more---primarily through the liturgy, from death---spiritual and physical---to absolute life in God.

To be in a human body is essential to being a complete human being.  The body of Jesus, once horribly tortured and humiliated and made dead, since His raising up by the glory of the Father, is endowed with eternal, invulnerable, invincible life.  Not only is He filled with the divine life, but He overflows with it, radiates it, and is the one and only source of it (so that wherever there is evidence of divine life in the human race, it originates from Him: all who are united with God, no matter what their religion---or no matter what their lack of conscious religion--- have Jesus to thank for it. Wherever in the cosmos there are signs of divine life, He is the source.)  The effect of this dispensing of divine life by Him is to enable us to make the transition from the death that we find ourselves afflicted by---both death of sin in the spirit and bodily death---to absolute life in God.

Now the big surprise for you in this definition will probably be the words "primarily through the liturgy:"  He communicates to us the divine life, causing us to Passover---primarily through the liturgy---from death to life in God. 

What is the liturgy? 

It is what we are doing right now. It is the sacraments and the communal worship which we, as the Church, offer to God. These are not mere ceremonies, impressive or boring, depending on your temperament or on how well or poorly they are performed---they are acts of the deepest meaning and importance. 

The liturgy is also the privileged occasion and favorite action by which God in Christ gives Himself to us, the members of His Church: most notably Baptism, in which we are engrafted onto Christ (and which is the great sacrament of Easter); and the Holy Communion, where we take Him into ourselves, and He takes us into Himself.  When we come to Church and participate in the ceremonies performed here, Christ is really present in His glorious humanity, making Himself ours, and making us His.

The ultimate goal of this process effected by Him is to make us---soul and body---like His dead-and-risen Self, so that, having communicated, to the extent possible, His very own way of being and doing to everyone who from the heart wants to belong to Him, and having instituted a new heaven and a new earth,

He could offer everything, together with Himself, to the Father, and, finally, God would be all in everyone.

Of course, we do not stay in church all day every day: we go out from here to live and act as Christ, insofar as we can.  And if we take seriously what we do in church, and are regular about it, and try to live accordingly, our capacity to be and act like Him will grow.  That is what He wants.  Because He is making a new heaven and a new earth, with us in them; and when they are complete, He intends to offer the whole universe, including us, along with Himself, to the Father.  THEN God will be all in all, and our happiness will be unshadowed, unmitigated, and complete.  It was for this that Jesus died and rose from the dead: to bring us joy, to be our joy, and to make us be His and the Father's joy.