Bishop Barron's Easter Vigil homily connecting the Old Testament readings to the Resurrection
Bishop Robert Barron delivers an Easter Vigil homily at the Basilica of St. Stanislaus Kostka in Winona, Minnesota.
Summary
Bishop Robert Barron delivers an Easter Vigil homily explaining why the Church reads from the Old Testament before proclaiming the Resurrection. He walks through each Scripture reading of the night — from Genesis through the Gospels — showing how each one anticipates and illuminates the risen Christ. His central argument is that the Resurrection cannot be properly understood apart from the full arc of Israel's scriptures, and that the disciples' encounter with the risen Jesus caused them to reread everything they had previously known in an entirely new light. He closes by insisting that the Resurrection accounts are not myth or legend but the testimony of eyewitnesses so shaken by what they experienced that the only adequate metaphor is an earthquake — one whose aftershocks are still being felt two thousand years later.
Key Takeaways
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Welcome and the Purpose of the Scripture Readings
Bishop Robert Barron: Good evening, everybody, on this most splendid night of the Church's year — this highest of our liturgies, this Easter Vigil. For all of us, of course, but especially for our catechumens and candidates, those who are coming now into full communion with the Church tonight.
Why do we receive this great treasury of Scripture this evening? Because the Church has always realized: you will not understand Jesus and his Resurrection apart from the Scriptures. We have to read him in light of the Scriptures. So I want to say — I promise — just a very short word about each of these readings.
Genesis: The Resurrection as God's Affirmation of Creation
How come we started with the Genesis account of creation? Because the Resurrection is God's affirmation of his creation. It matters immensely, everybody, that Jesus rose bodily from the dead. The Resurrection is not an escape from matter — it is the transfiguration of matter. The Resurrection is the great "yes" to creation. God found it good — indeed, very good — and it comes to its fulfillment in the Resurrection of Jesus.
The Sacrifice of Isaac: The Covenant Fulfilled
That second reading — that awful, awesome reading about the sacrifice of Isaac. Abraham is the one with whom God makes a covenant. Israel begins really with this. God renews covenants with Moses, with David. Jeremiah speaks of a new and everlasting covenant. The sign of the covenant? God says, "I'll be your God and you will be my people." And what does he ask of Abraham? That he might give to God what is most precious to him — his son Isaac.
What does God give to us? What is most precious to him — his only begotten Son. What we see in the gift of Jesus on the cross is the fulfillment of this story. God in the end did not demand that Abraham kill Isaac, but God the Father did indeed give his Son for the salvation of the world. That's how the covenant begun with Abraham was fulfilled.
Exodus: The Master Metaphor for Redemption
Why our third reading from the book of Exodus? Because that's in many ways, everybody, the master metaphor for redemption — the escape of the Israelite slaves from Egypt. What are sin and death? Sin and death hold us captive. We are their slaves. Moses opens up a path through the Red Sea to move from slavery to freedom. Jesus says in reference to himself, "I am the way." Jesus, in his dying and rising, becomes the way out of sin and death to the land of redemption. It's the master metaphor for salvation.
Isaiah: God Desires to Marry Us
Why the next reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah? Listen to the first line that we heard: "The one who has become your husband is your maker." Now I submit to you, everybody, there is nothing like that line in all the religious literature of the world. What do I mean? Well, God is described in all kinds of places and religions as the creator, as Lord, as judge, and so on. But Isaiah says the one who made us — God — wants to marry us. There is nothing like that. That God wants to share his life that intimately with us.
The Church Fathers said that God became human that we might become sharers in God's nature. It's a marriage — a connubium, they called it. Where is that marriage consummated? The Church Fathers said: on the cross. Why? Because on the cross, God utterly gives himself to us the way a husband gives himself to his wife, a wife to her husband. "Your builder, your maker will marry you." Isaiah anticipated it. It becomes a reality in Christ crucified and risen.
The Second Isaiah Reading: The Word That Does Not Return Void
How come we had a second reading from Isaiah? Listen: "Just as from the heavens the rain and the snow come down and do not return without watering the earth, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. My word shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it."
God's word is not like ours — merely descriptive of reality. We saw it in the first reading: God's word makes reality. God speaks, and things are. So again here: my word does not go forth from me without accomplishing its purpose.
Who is Jesus? He is the Word — this Word — the creative Word of God made flesh. Therefore, and those who were here on Thursday night heard me say this, therefore what Jesus says is: "Lazarus, come forth." And the dead man comes forth. "Little girl, get up." And the dead girl gets up. "My son, your sins are forgiven." And they are forgiven. The night before he dies, he takes bread and says, "This is my body." And so it is. And he takes the chalice of wine and says, "This is my blood." And so it is. What Jesus says is — because he is the Word of God that does not go forth in vain but accomplishes his purpose.
Listen now. What does the risen Jesus say to his disciples? "Shalom. Peace." And that word, everybody, has gone out for the past two thousand years — the word of the risen Jesus. We threw everything we have at him. We threw all of our sin at him. And he returned with a word of peace, and that word accomplishes its purpose.
St. Paul: A Rabbi Who Rethought Everything
Next we heard from St. Paul. We call him St. Paul — he was Rabbi Shaul, wasn't he? He was a student of Gamaliel, the greatest rabbi of the time. Young Shaul read all these scriptures that we just heard, and all the rest of them. He knew every theme I've been talking about. And then he met the risen Jesus, and he rethought his Judaism in light of that experience. And then he speaks in his letters.
So we hear him speaking to the Romans: "We know that our old self was crucified with him so that our sinful body might be done away with, that we might no longer be in slavery to sin." He had read the book of Exodus, and he knew that great story of liberation came most fully true through the dying and rising of Jesus.
Matthew's Resurrection Account: The Great Earthquake
And then finally, everybody, we heard St. Matthew's magnificent account of the Resurrection. So all the other readings are leading up to this place. We are meant to read the Resurrection in light of all that we have heard.
And what do we hear in Matthew? "Behold, there was a great earthquake. For an angel of the Lord descended from heaven." An earthquake — not something calm, not something under our control, not something we can easily understand. When I was a bishop out in California — I'm a Chicago kid, what do I know about earthquakes? — I experienced earthquakes in California, and they're something. They do shake you at a very deep level.
What is the Resurrection? They want to tell us it's an old myth, a fairy tale, an old story. No, no, no. Listen to these people when they talk about the Resurrection. They are not trading in myths and legends and symbols. They are talking about something that happened to them that was so powerful and so vivid that it was like an earthquake shaking the foundations of their lives.
Jesus — whom they saw crucified and put to death. Romans didn't make mistakes; they knew how to put people to death. And they saw him dead and buried. And then they saw him alive again. Read Acts chapter 10, when St. Peter says, "We who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead." I don't know what you do with language like that. That is not trading in myths and legends and stories.
And if you want to visit his grave, by the way — the man who said that — go right over to Rome. It has got the most beautiful grave marker in the world over it: St. Peter's Basilica. The big fisherman from Capernaum, Peter, ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.
Once they saw that, they understood their scriptures in a whole new way. I wanted to give you a little flavor of that — how they read these ancient scriptures. An earthquake had happened. And everybody, the aftershocks of that great earthquake are still being felt today. That is why we are gathering here in Winona, Minnesota, in this beautiful basilica, two thousand years later — still to celebrate the great earthquake that brought the story of Israel to its fulfillment and that gives us life and hope.