HOMILY PRONOUNCED BY MONS. DIEGO MONROY PONCE; GENERAL AND EPISCOPAL VICAR OF GUADALUPE, RECTOR OF THE SANCTUARY.
HOLY NIGHT- PASCHAL VIGIL.

Saturday, April 7th of 2007

A NEW WORLD HAS BEGUN.
¡Alleluia! ¡Christ has risen! Christ is alive! ¡Alleluia!

Dear brothers, the whole human history is history of salvation because of Christ. From the Genesis, it means, from the beginning of the world, the Holy Scripture, as we just listened, speaks to us about the most important dimension of the history, the truthful one, and because of this, the most transcendental: God made well all the things, and He made them for our happiness, thanks to that all was created by Christ and for Christ. This is the certainty that the church announces in the Easter with great gladness and deep joy to the world.

We, the baptized ones in Christ, believe and proclaim that the world and its history, in spite of the evidences of the moment, it will not be ruined, it does make sense, it is the one that reveals to us the mystery of the risen Christ: the triumph of the good over bad; of life over death, of happiness over failure, of love over hatred.

The celebration of this holy night makes actualizes this experience of faith in love and hope. We celebrate Easter beginning with a vigil in the heart of the night; the night more luminous than the most shining day. The Easter begins with the vigil and culminates with the Eucharist that perfectly expresses the depth of the mystery in the life of the church.

All the sacraments have their origin in this event of salvation, in addition to the Eucharist, the Baptism is one of the most important sacraments, as a starting point of the life in dead and raised Christ, as Saint Paul shows us in his letter to the Romans, because being buried with Him in his death and raised with Him, we already have a new life.

The paschal night is baptismal night. The old life is left in the tomb. Old life means egoism, violence, covetousness, and carnal desires. All these sins are nailed in the cross. Now, the new life of risen Christ imposes itself victorious.

The powers of the darkness fled from the risen Christ- ¡victory of the light!-; it washes the dirt- ¡effects of the water and the blood!-; it recovers of beauty- ¡the tunic of his grace!-; transmits the joy- ¡it is a gift of the Easter!-; it raises the flag of peace and communion-¡HE is our peace!-.

The Baptism is represented by the fire. At the beginning of the celebration we have the light a new fire, from which has come the paschal light. As a sign, write the things that you want to burn; it can be things from your old life, or from the society in which we live, and throw them to the fire. Let them burn your impurities in the fire of the Spirit.

The paschal mystery is the mystery of sanctity, because it is the defeat of old things, of tenebrous things, of ugly things, of stinking things, is the triumph of the new life, of the light and the beauty, of the grace and the fragrance.

It has passed: it is called Easter. It passed from the nothingness to the being, Easter of the creation; it passed from slavery to freedom, Easter of liberation; it passed from death to life. Easter of resurrection, Easter of our Lord Jesus Christ, Easter of all the believers of Christ.

All Easters are possible by the vivifying breath of the Holy Spirit. Where the Spirit encourages there is life, where the Spirit blows, there is freedom, and where the Spirit is present there is not death, because the Spirit of love is stronger. That’s why Christ, who was moved by the Spirit, raised himself.

My brother ¡open yourself to the breeze of the Spirit! We need to break strings and to rise gladly ourselves with Jesus. (This is the night in which He removed the Israelites from Egypt (...) this is the night in which the chains of death were broken, and Christ ascends victorious from the abyss. Christ is our Promised Land. Christ is our victory. Christ is our resurrection and our Easter.

My brothers, we are awake: we can not sleep as the guards of the tomb slept. [The night is time of salvation (...) the night was witness of Christ in the tomb. At night we will wait for your sudden return (...)] we have to be wakeful, thus when the Lord comes, he does not find us sleeping.

My brothers, we have to pray: it is not enough to have a wide awake mind, but our heart ready. We must be praying with the desire of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, praying with the hope that Jesus raises also in you, praying with the presence of the risen Christ, praying with the gratefulness and the paschal alleluia. (¡What an amazing benefit of your love for us!).

We have passed the night listening to the Lord’s word, the wonders made throughout history. It is to meditate and to keep. Keeping the word is receiving Christ, because all the words are preparation, announcement, explanation of the Word, Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. And all the words culminate in the Easter, in the victory of the death, in the effusion of the spirit.

My brothers, the paschal vigil is not one more of the celebrations, it is the celebration of the celebrations, the mother of all the celebrations. None of them would be possible without the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Instead of celebrations we would have lamentations.

Celebrating is singing with the heart. (Because these are the festivities of the Easter, in which the true Lamb is immolated (...) ¡what a very happy night (...) in which is heaven is united with Earth, with the human and divine).

Tonight, the risen Christ wants to be united with us and wants to rise with us. Let us celebrate the communion with Christ. A wedding night. Let us celebrate the love given by Christ, the wedding of our God. We celebrate the victory of Christ over the death, but not only the one of Christ, but also ours. The risen Christ transmits the resurrection to us.

We talk about all the deaths. They are the biological death, the psychological death, the spiritual death. The body dies, the mind dies, and the heart dies. The corporal resurrection is the result of other resurrections. Christ lifts us from sadness, from hopelessness, from emptiness, and from the lack of sense. Christ raises us from slavery, from vice, from badness. Christ lifts us mainly from the lack of affection. The person who does not love is dead. Living consists in loving.

Christ vivifies us because he covers us with his love; our lungs are oxygenated with the spirit of love. And the love is stronger than the death. That is why that we will have life for ever, because his love is eternal and it never finishes.

My dear brothers: allow our heart to burn with his faithful, close and alive presence through our brothers, especially in our Eucharistic celebrations.

Let us listen with attention to those who truly follow the living Jesus as disciples; also to those who with their brave testimony, that is filled with love, are ready to forgive instead of those who persecute Him. Follow the footsteps of the risen Christ.

We have to be ready; we have to trust in the author of life, to defend it in all its stages, from its conception to the natural death; because the glory of God is the live man (saint Ireneo) who is alive in fullness

My brothers, these and many others would be the best proof of our present life in a live Christ. May the God Father grant us with the intercession and the loving company of our little girl and sweet mother; Holy Mary of Guadalupe.

Amen. ¡Alleluia!