Ending and Beginning

Christ is Risen! Alleluia!

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Dear Christians, one and all, rejoice! Tonight the holy penitential season of Lent is ended. Fasting and weeping are put away. Tears and sorrow are removed. Your salvation is completed.

And yet, this is but the end of the beginning. For on this holy night, we keep solemn vigil. We keep watch for the One who comes in the Name of the Lord, the coming King. St. Augustine wrote:

In that life for the attainment of the peace of which we labor, and which Truth promises to us in the resurrection after the death of this body or at the end of this world, we shall never sleep, just as we shall never die. For what else is sleep but a daily death which does not completely remove man hence nor detain him too long? And what else is death but a very long and very deep sleep from which God arouses man? Therefore, when there is no death, there is likewise no sleep, the image of death. Finally, there is no sleep except that of mortals.

Let us forsake the sleep of death, and keep watch with the angels and archangels and all the company of heaven. Let us keep watch this holy night with all creation, eagerly groaning for the resurrection of our Lord, the recreation of all things, and the dawning of the new day filled with the Light of the World which can never be overcome.

This is the end of the beginning. This is the end of the Season of Preparation. The feast is here. And this is the beginning of the End. Let us be attentive in watching for the new Dawn.

On this night, the forces of evil are watching, to be sure. The Jews had Pilate post guards at the tomb and affix a seal to the stone, lest the disciples steal the dead body away and perpetrate a greater deception than the first. The cynics and skeptics and critics watch eagerly to see the sealed tomb and the dead body still present tomorrow morning. They would like nothing better than to see the claims of the faithful falsified and the preaching of Jesus shown to be a lie. Then our faith would be in vain, and we would be the most pitiable, wretched lot ever to have walked the earth.

Let us watch, then, for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. On this night we watch, not for His coming into the flesh, as though He might crawl up into His mother's womb and be born again of the Blessed Virgin, but for His coming in glory, resurrected from the dead, living and breathing the Breath of Life.

Let us keep watch now for the King of Glory to come and save us. This is a foretaste of the feast to come. You know that Christ has died and been buried. You know that He has descended into hell. And you know that He is coming again. But His coming has not yet been made manifest to you. You, like the women in the Garden, weep among the dead, awaiting the consolation of Israel at the coming of her Lord.

This is a foretaste of the feast to come, the beginning of the End. For tomorrow, when the Day of Resurrection dawns, the End will begin. The Eighth Day, the New Creation. We wait this evening the resurrection of our Lord in the same way we await the resurrection of all flesh. It is accomplished; it will happen. But it has not happened yet. You cannot yet see it, nor fully enjoy the fruits of the new creation in your flesh. But you know it has happened. You have witnessed the death of Jesus Christ upon the cross for your sins, for the sins of the world. The Redeemer has died for the debtors. The Lamb has died for the sheep. The King has died for His people.

Do not be afraid for the future. Do not be ashamed of the past. The past is gone and buried with yesterday's sins. The future is not yet dawned. Live now, and watch eagerly with all creation for the dawning of the new day, when our Crucified Lord will be revealed to the world as He has displayed Himself to the powers of hell. He is not dead! He is living!

Death is dead. Hell is broken open. The captives are led free into heaven. The recreation of the cosmos has begun. The Lamb of God once slain is raised from the dead. Your sins are dead and buried, but your Lord is not. Your blood is safe, because His is shed. Your life is secure because He lives and reigns to all eternity. Your peace with God is made, because death and life have contended in combat stupendous, and the Prince of Life who died reigns immortal. And because He lives and breathes and reigns, so too will you live under Him in His kingdom, which is dawning here now, and which shall never end.

Up, pray and watch and wrestle. Do not sleep the sleep of death, but be attentive with the ears of wisdom. The night will soon be ending and the day of endless life is dawning. Rejoice, give thanks, and sing! Your salvation is accomplished, and your Savior is drawing near!

In the Name of Jesus. Amen

Christ is Risen! Alleluia!