35. What is an Easter Vigil? How did Jesus save us? How did Jesus fulfill the Law and the Old Testament? Anniversary of Tammy Peterson's Confirmation and Holy Communion

It is the one-year anniversary of Mrs Tammy Peterson's confirmation . I remember attending the Easter vigil of my family at Holy Rosary Church in Toronto . It was a special time seeing her being confirmed with the gifts of the Holy Spirit , receiving her First Holy Communion and entering the church with other catechumens , including Mr .

Reese Harris , who celebrated his Baptism with his wife and young daughter . If you have been invited to an Easter visual mass and don't know what it's about , you're in for a treat . Father Peter Turrone , the Pastor of Holy Rosary Parish and the priest who prepared Mrs . Peterson to be received into the Catholic Church , explains the truth of salvation history .

Here's his beautiful homily during the Easter vigil last year at this time . Thank you , and God bless .

I strive to tell stories that inspire , illuminate and enrich the lives of Catholic women , to help them in living out our vocation of raising the next generation of leaders and saints .

This was followed by the preparation of the Easter paschal Candle . The words Christ , yesterday and today , the beginning and the end , the Alpha and the Omega . All time belongs to him and all the ages To him . Be glory and power through every age and forever . The numerals 2024 were carved into the candle .

2024 years have passed since the Alpha took on flesh to redeem what had been lost due to the sin of Adam and Eve . In the second part of tonight's vigil , the Liturgy of the Word swept us through several thousands of years of salvation history . In the Genesis account , we heard how God created the world . Good Humanity .

The apex of creation was created in the image and likeness of God himself . All of us were made to glorify and to magnify God . However , the sin of Adam and Eve damaged everything . Original sin was a spiritual earthquake which alienated us from him , from each other and from the rest of creation .

But even after this terrible sin , god had offered them the hope of salvation through his words to the serpent , I will put enmity between you and the woman , between your seed and her seed . She shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel . The seed born of a woman was destined to become the true lamb God himself alluded to when he attested Abraham .

As we read in the second reading , Jesus Christ is both priest and victim , who came to save us from slavery to sin and lead us into the promised land flowing with milk and honey . He did this by mounding the cross and having both water and blood drained from his pierced side , from which the church arises .

The only reason why we can gather tonight because of and with great joy and not sorrow in our hearts , is because of what the young man proclaimed to Mary Magdalene , mary , the mother of James and Salome: "Do not be alarmed . You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth , who was crucified . He has been raised . He is not here . G .

K Chesterton , the famous English convert , once wrote on the third day , the friends of Christ , coming at daybreak to the place , found the grave empty and the stone rolled away In various ways . They realized the new wonder . But even they hardly realized that the world had died that night .

What they were looking at was the first day of a new creation with a new heaven and a new earth . The entire New Testament is unanimous on this one point the passion and the cross and burial of Jesus Christ reveal their significance only in light of his resurrection , without which there is no Christian faith .

Paul goes on to say that we would be truly pitied if there were no resurrection . But what exactly does it mean to be resurrected ? According to Benedict XVI , the resurrection is not a reversal of clinical death . That is what Lazarus experienced when Jesus raised him from the dead . There is something very different involved here .

Jesus now belongs wholly to the Word of God . Throughout the Easter season , we will hear of Jesus' many appearances . He speaks to them in a very strange , cryptic language when he says "'Remember when I was with you while standing in their midst . '" . How can this be ?

All of his post-resurrection appearances are not the resurrection itself , but are its radiant splendor . It is a meta-historical event . Since the dawn of the new creation ushered in by Christ's resurrection , many men and women have come to believe that Jesus is God in the flesh .

Shortly we will call upon the great cloud of witnesses , as we hear from the letter to the Hebrews . When we sing the litany of the saints , we will invoke the help of the many baptized men and women of different tribes and nations , who took the gospel literally and wore the sweet and gentle yoke of Jesus Christ with perseverance throughout their entire lives .

Dear catechumens , you are about to be washed clean with the same blood that Jesus shed on the cross for our salvation . Through baptism , you will become adopted children of God . Both the Father and the Son will come and live in you through the fire of the Holy Spirit .

Throughout your lives you drank from many different wells , like the Samaritan woman seeking to quench your thirst . You have come to recognize that Christ , and Christ alone , can satisfy your deepest desires . Dear candidates and catechumens , tonight we will all be . You will be sealed with the holy spirit through confirmation .

May the Lord grant you every gift and fruit and charism needed to glorify the Lord by your lives . And to all of us here present who have already received the sacraments of initiation , we will have an opportunity to renew our baptismal promises and receive the Eucharistic Lord this holy night . After the resurrection .

Jesus' Real Presence remains with us in the Eucharist . His promise to be with us until the end of the ages is thus fulfilled . After we leave here tonight , all of us were called to bring Christ's light to our homes and places of work and on social media in the digital sphere .

As (the late Pope) Benedict XVI used to say , even though the West has preferred to follow the path of the prodigal son rather than remain faithful to her Christian roots , we continue to fight the good fight so that others may be saved too .

We know that there are many people who are attracted to the Catholic Church but are understandably reluctant to approach her due to misunderstandings or as a result of the disgraceful behavior of some of her members . Benedict XVI addressed this issue during his visit to the US back in 2009 .

In his homily at St Patrick's Cathedral , he said that the church building itself may look gray and drab on the exterior . However , if we surrender our fear and our concerns to God and are willing to cross the threshold , we will come to discover her inner beauty .

May the risen Lord find our hearts wide open this most holy of nights , so that we can already get a taste of the victory in store for those who remain faithful to the Omega , who will one day return to take his own with him into the kingdom he has prepared for us from the foundation of the world .