Easter Vigil Mass

Mk. 16: 1-6

MAIN PROOF

Happy Easter to all of you! My

dear friends, in this Mass, we
are celebrating the vigil of the
resurrection of our Lord. The
resurrection is the MAIN and
STRONGEST proof that Jesus
Christ is God. No man, by his
own power, can resurrect from
death to life. Only God can do
that. Christ did it, therefore,
Christ is God.

What is the importance of this

for us? Well, this is an
assurance for all of us
Christians that we are not
mistaken that Jesus whom we-
God-we call God and Lord, is
TRUE God and should indeed
be called Lord. And what is our
proof of his divinity? This is
the RESURRECTION.

This is now the good question.

If the resurrection of Jesus
Christ is this important for us,
why?
we don't have DIRECT
evidence of his resurrection?
Meaning, why did no one see
the ACTUAL rising of Jesus
Christ from death to life? We
only have circumstantial pieces
of evidence of his resurrection-
meaning, those ideas which
suggest or point to the
resurrection. "That's all we
have circumstantial evidence.

For example, the empty tomb.

"The tomb where our Lord was
buried was found empty.
Therefore, they said, this might
mean that Jesus Christ
resurrected-so he is no longer
there in the tomb.

But, that's all we have! We have

no direct evidence. Well, if the
resurrection is that important,
why don't we have direct
evidence? Well, I will answer
that in this way.

When it comes to
manifestations by God, take
note, I said manifestations or
revelations by God, not the
revelations of just any person
out there. I am referring to
manifestations by God. When
man has no faith in God, he will
not believe. Or, the best he will
say is this, "I will study first,
and then I will see if I should
believe or not." But then, when
the person has belief or faith,
then he will easily believe the
revelation of God.
A good example here is Moses.
We know what happened to
Moses. He climbed Mt. Sinai.
And then he noticed that a
bush was burning. But then,
the bush which was burning
was not being consumed! He
said, "Why, it's amazing! The
bush burns, but it doesn't burn
out." Get closer
si Moses. And then he heard a
voice which said, "I am God."
Naniwala si Moses.

You noticed? He didn't see

anything! All he heard was the
voice saying, "I am God." But
he believed immediately. Why?
Because Moses was a man of
faith. So, that's also what I
mean that even though we
don't have direct evidence, and
we only have circumstantial
evidence of the resurrection of
our Lord, we believe. That
means, God has given us the
gift of faith in the resurrection.
So we should thank the Lord
that he gave us belief and faith
in the resurrection. That is one
very important meaning of this
celebration.

Now, Chapter 2, so to speak, of

our reflection.
What is the importance of this
resurrection to us? That's a lot!
If I do it one by one, it will take
us the morning. But then, let
me just cite three important
points of this resurrection for
us.

Number one. That through the

resurrection, God the Father,
so to speak, endorsed his Son.
It means this. There were so
many things that Christ said
and did when he was still living
among the people. And then he
died, and then he resurrected.
And, because of the
resurrection, it was proven that
Jesus Christ is God. Because
we saw his divinity after the
resurrection, then we have no
reason to doubt everything he
did, everything he said,
everything he taught,
everything he lived before - we
have nothing to do doubt Why?
Because we proved that Jesus
Christ is God and God cannot
deceive us.

The second importance is this.

That the resurrection is the
cause of our sanctification.
Again, this is what that means.
You know, the theologians
have made a "division of labor"
of the Three Persons of the
Holy Trinity - to make it clear to
our human understanding. But
then actually, you cannot say
that this was only done by God
the Father, this, only God the
Son; this, only God the Holy
Spirit. No, it's not like that.
Because actually, what one did,
three did. But nevertheless,
that's what I'm saying, for
clarity, the theologians made a
"division of labor" of the Three
Persons of the Holy Trinity.
And this is what they say.
God, the Father, is the
CREATOR. God, the Son is the
REDEEMER. God, the Holy
Spirit is the SANCTIFIER,
Sanctifier means, the one who
makes us holy. This is now. If
you recall, when our Lord was
still teaching the people, he
said, "When I go back to my
Father, I will send you the spirit
to be your paraclete, to be your
teacher. Meaning, he will
sanctify you. " And, we know
that Jesus keeps his promise.
After his resurrection, and
eventually, after his ascension,
he sent the Holy Spirit here in
order to sanctify us. So, in that
sense, the resurrection is the
reason for the descent of the
Holy Spirit here which is also
the reason why we Christians
are holy-supposed to be holy.

The third and final importance

of the resurrection is this. It is
the starting point of interest for
the Gospels. This is what that
means. If we read the Gospels,
especially the

Gospel of St. Matthew, we can

see that it started with the gene
alogy or family tree of Jesus
Christ. Family tree, then his
birth, and then his lifestyle and
so on and so forth and then it
ended with the resurrection. So
this gives us the impression
that when Matthew's Gospel
was written, the sequence was
exactly like that! Starting there
with his family tree, and then
successively until his
resurrection. That will be the
impression.

But then actually, the sequence

is not like that. Because, the
sequence is reversed. And this
is what I mean. When the
resurrection happened, the
Gospel writers became more
interested in Jesus Christ.
They said, "He resurrected!
That means, he is not
somebody who is ordinary!
Well, this is an extraordinary
person. So, wait, let's go back
to his life-history." So be-cause
of that resurrection, they said,
"What really happened when he
died? And before he died,
wasn't there a trial? And before
that, wasn't he teaching, and
then etc., etc." Until they came
to his family tree. So, the
situation is reversed. And why?
All because his resurrection
drew out the interest of the
Gospel writers. And that is
what I mean by saying that the
resurrection is the starting
point of the Gospels.