Easter Vigil

Many of us have experienced some kind of intense tragic event with such profound sadness/ devastation. This was mine: When the war began in my native home, we lost everything within just 3 months. So many lives were lost; some families were wiped out. The Kingdom of darkness was at work. Pure Devastation. I also thought of the recent devastation of the earthquake that left thousands dead and few survivors under the rubble, waiting for a miracle with a faint cry. In cases like these, survivors painfully wait and hope for rescue. These stories send us chills and put us on the edge, hoping for the rescue moment. And tonight is such! It is the night when the line between death and resurrection becomes thin! We have good reason to rejoice, even in the midst of our sorrow! On one hand, we heard the story of Israelites under the darkness of Egyptian slavery, crying out to God in desperation, prompting God to haste the rescue! Just like them, we also may have longed for God to rescue us in our own desperation. Also, we heard the Good Friday message yesterday: About the selfless act of Jesus the Son of God, who went willingly to his death, the worst of it, the Crucifixion, and reaching even into the depth of the underworld to remove Adam’s sin from all who were gone before and to introduce the love of God into every space; to restore humanity to a complete healing, into our original divinely intended state: The perfect moment of rescue! My hope, is that tonight becomes to us such a moment because, in everything we go through in life, it takes courage not give up on our faith, especially knowing that not all is lost as it appears! Pls don’t give up! Your miracle is actually in the making, God is at it! Maybe you lost someone so dear to you, or you lost something valuable, or you have faced a major disappointment! Pls don’t despair, trust God who turns sorrows into joy. He renews our life by His Spirit. He redeems any desperate situations, and forgive us, so we can be acceptable in His sight. Will this night, be a time when we surrender everything to God? You might have heard that the tough things we go through in life rewires our brains. The effect of trauma changes us deeply. For some of us, it’s a lifetime journey. I would say that it’s amazing to realize that when we let go of our control, and accept this divine mysterious power of Jesus’ resurrection, our lives are transformed more and more into Christ likeness. Tonight, we contemplate Jesus’ triumph over the world & the powers of darkness by defeating death and the grave. For this reason, tonight becomes our healing moment: We begin to mimic Jesus’ journey spiritually, by identifying with him. We begin to fully embrace/accept these difficult events of Holy Week that often mirror events of our own lives. We begin to acknowledge our total dependency on God with our hands raised up high! Tonight, we can joyfully emerge out of our events of darkness, stepping into the light because, this moment of rescue is the very beginning of our New Covenant with God, sealed with the blood of the lamb. This rescue moment demands that we yield to God’s power so that, even when all seem depressing and hopeless. We know by faith that God is with us and He is ready to rescue us! Tonight, we claim God’s gift of salvation/healing in this new covenant, because it is in this mystery that Jesus took on/ absorbed all our sorrows inside his own sufferings on the cross and inside his laying in the stone-cold tomb, turning them all into joy and life in the Spirit; the joy of a spiritual new birth, being born from above! May this Easter season bring you, new life, new perspective of peace, forgiveness, hope and strength! May we experience the power of the resurrection in our personal lives! Amen.