"Tonight is the Night of Nights"

Easter Vigil in the Holy Night of Easter

    On 5 June, 1944, as the 101st Airborne Division waited anxiously in England, Paratrooper George Luz of Easy Company read aloud a letter from the Col. Robert Sink, at first even imitating his voice: “Tonight is the night of nights.  As you read this, you are en route to the great adventure for which you trained for over two years.”  The next day, 6 June 1944, D-Day, they would jump into Nazi-occupied Normandy, and begin to change the tide of World War II, which, up to that point, had favored the Nazis.
    As we listened to the Old Testament readings, all seven of them, God took us back to all the ways that He had trained us for this night, the true night of nights, “when Christ broke the prison-bars of death and rose victorious from the underworld,” as the Exsultet proclaimed.  Even from the very dawn of creation, God was pointing us to the moment when His Incarnate Son would redeem the world that would fall at our hands, and forever destroy death and sin.
    We heard about Abraham and Isaac: how Isaac, the beloved Son, willingly walked up the mountain to be sacrificed, though God stayed the hand of Abraham and gave him a ram instead to sacrifice.  We heard how God led His Chosen People from slavery in Egypt, and how the Chosen People passed through the Red Sea safely with God’s help, while the forces of evil who pursued them were destroyed by the waters.  We heard from Isaiah how God would marry us to Himself, and how He would give us water to drink and food to eat that would truly satisfy us.  We heard Baruch prophesy how we had walked away from the Lord, but God brought us back, and has made known to us how we truly may be happy.  And lastly, we heard Ezekiel tell us that, though we had profaned God’s holy Name, He would display His power and holiness among us, and give us a new spirit so that we could be faithful to our covenant with Him, and be His holy people.  Not for two years, but for two thousand years, God was training us for the Resurrection.
    We have also been training over these past 40 days through our Lenten observances.  We took upon ourselves little “deaths” so that we could be prepared for the new life of the resurrection.  We recalled that even the enjoyable things of life are dust, and that we are called to turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel.  We fasted and abstained; we engaged in prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.  
    And you, my dear Elect and Candidate, and those who will receive sacraments tonight: you, too, have been training for weeks and months, preparing to open yourself up to become children of God, to become members of the Church, and to grow in your own initiation in the Catholic Church in which some of your were baptized.  You prayed over how God had led you out of the darkness of sin into the light of this night, and how He will walk with you, helping you to be His faithful follower, not only united to Him but also bearing witness to Him by word and deed.  
    You, like Easy Company, are being dropped behind enemy lines.  The fallen world, though Christ has conquered sin and death, still fights against Him.  But, like the Israelites and the Egyptians, with God on your side, you cannot be conquered.  God will crush your true enemy, Satan and all his fallen angels, and protect you through the waters of Baptism, which some of you are receiving tonight.  Through Confirmation, you will receive the Holy Spirit, who will go before you like a pillar of fire to light your way, and will give you the strength to witness to Christ by what you say and what you do.  And through the Most Holy Eucharist, the blood of the truly unblemished Lamb of God will be painted over the lintels of your lips, so that the angel of death will not smite you, but you will pass-over, unharmed by eternal death because you have received eternal life within you.  
    You, too, as with every person here, each have your own part to play in winning other souls for Christ and conquering the enemy.  Not everyone is expected to be a general, or a medic, or a radio tech.  But God has equipped each of you with certain gifts which will help His victory be spread and eternal life be shared with others.  From this point on, you cannot sit on the sidelines as a spectator.  You are an integral part of God’s mission to conform the entire world to Himself, which really means helping each person find true happiness by living like Christ in total obedience to the Father.  You have found the pearl of great price in Christ.  Do not hide that same treasure from others who desire it.  
    I close my homily with excerpts of the words of Col. Sink, which though written about the impending invasion of Normandy, are also aptly written about the victory Christ won tonight by His Resurrection: “Tomorrow throughout the whole of our homeland…the bells will ring out the tidings that…liberation has begun.  […] Imbued with faith…let us annihilate the enemy where found.  May God be with each of you….  By your actions let us justify His faith in us.”  Christ has liberated us from sin and death.  Filled with faith in him, let us put down the works of sin and death.  May our response to God’s grace be for the glory of His Name, and confirm the name that tonight we all will share: Catholic Christian.