The Paschal Mystery: From Death to Life in Christ

The Church proclaims tonight what she has proclaimed for two thousand years: Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again. These three sentences contain the entirety of the Christian faith. The Catechism calls them the Paschal Mystery — the saving work of Christ accomplished through His passion, death, resurrection, and glorification. The word "Paschal" connects us to the Passover — the night when the angel of death passed over the homes marked with the blood of the lamb. Tonight, we celebrate the definitive Passover: the Lamb of God has been sacrificed, and death itself has been passed over. The tomb is empty. The stone is rolled away. And the angel proclaims what the Church has never stopped proclaiming: "He is not here. He has risen." This is not an event of the past that we merely remember. The Paschal Mystery is the living reality into which every baptized person is immersed. When you were baptized, you were plunged into the death of Christ — and raised with Him to new life. Tonight, at the Easter Vigil, the Church renews those baptismal promises. The waters of the font echo the waters of the empty tomb. What happened to Christ happens to us. That is the Paschal Mystery.

Paul writes to the Romans: "We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life." Baptism is not a past event you recall sentimentally. It is a present reality you live daily. Every morning you wake up, you wake up as a baptized person — someone who has already died and risen with Christ. Tonight, the Church asks you to renew your baptismal promises. "Do you renounce Satan?" "Do you believe in God the Father almighty?" "Do you believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried, rose from the dead?" These are not routine questions. They are the most radical commitments a human being can make — and they are grounded in the historical reality of the empty tomb. For the catechumens who will receive baptism tonight — welcome. You are about to be plunged into the death and resurrection of Christ. The water that touches you is not symbolic. It is sacramental — an effective sign of the grace it signifies. You will emerge from the font as a new creation. The Paschal Mystery is not something you observe. It is something that happens to you.

The disciples on the road to Emmaus walked with the risen Christ and did not recognize Him. Their eyes were opened "in the breaking of the bread." This is the consistent witness of the Church: we encounter the risen Lord most fully in the Eucharist. Tonight, when the priest lifts the consecrated Host and says, "The Body of Christ," the One you receive is the risen Christ — body, blood, soul, and divinity. The Eucharist is not a memorial of an absent friend. It is the Real Presence of the risen Lord. The same body that was laid in the tomb, the same body that walked through the locked door, the same body that showed Thomas its wounds — that body is given to you in the Sacrament. This is why the Mass is the summit of the Christian life. Every Mass is Easter. Every Eucharist is an encounter with the risen Christ. The Paschal Mystery does not happen once a year. It happens every time the Church gathers around the altar and the priest speaks the words of consecration. Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again. And until He comes, He is here — really, truly, substantially present — in the breaking of the bread. Alleluia. Alleluia. Alleluia.