Easter Vigil, Cycle B
A Story about Us and Water
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
God’s Story
Tonight, we hear God’s story – or perhaps more correctly – God’s story about God and us.
On this holiest night of the year, the Word of God would have us remember some core truths about water and us.
No it’s more than thinking of water as a refreshing drink, or rain that waters our lawns and veggie gardens.
It’s water that is at the heart of all in our life that has deep meaning for us.
Life-Giving Waters of Creation
The Word of God tells us the story about how things were “in the beginning,” before there was no thing, how in the beginning God creates the heavens and the earth. (Swoosh!)
God then separates the waters from the earth (Slice!), then brings forth the light (Ah-aaa!) and the sky (Ooooo!), the sun (My my!) and moon and stars (Wow!), the fish and plants and trees and animals. And finally, God creates man and woman (Yikes!)
And with all this marvelous creation, God gives us human beings responsibility to care for it. Note too that after creating each, “God sees how good it is.”
APPLICATION: These words – God seeing the goodness in all of creation – are repeated over and over in order to grab our attention and call us to approach all creation with love and respect.
The Liberating Waters of the Exodus
God’s as the storyteller then relates that, unfortunately, we haven’t acted in appropriate ways toward all this goodness and sin enters our world and our relationships.
The second reading speaks of an example of this sin as the oppression of the Israelites by the Egyptians.
And so God intervenes in this oppression and frees the Israelites in the event we call the Exodus. God again tames the water, as God did in the act of creation, and the tamed parted waters allow his people to pass through them safely to freedom.
In doing this, God wants us to remember the past – the social injustice in Egypt. God calls us to remember the slavery in Egypt because this social sin is still with us. It exists in ethnic cleansing, in racism, and in the allowing of poverty and neglect of the poor to continue.
APPLICATION: So not only does God call us to be responsible for creation, God wants us also to be agents for routing out systemic injustice and violence.
The Forgiving Waters of Ezekiel
God the storyteller then goes on to remind us of the personal sin we commit.
The prophet Ezekiel in our third reading tells God’s people that they must not blame others for their sin. They must take responsibility for personally and individually having disregarded God’s ways.
Here comes a third reference to water at work in God’s creation. Ezekiel promises that God will sprinkle clean water upon them to cleanse them of their sinfulness.
But the water of forgiveness will come only after God’s people accept responsibility for wrongdoing. For us today it might be neglecting our aging parents or our children or failing to pray and not making God the center of our lives.
APPLICATION: Ezekiel says to repent, ‘fess up, and the waters of forgiveness will flow over us.
The Waters of New Life
(1) The life-giving waters of creation, (2) The liberating waters of the Exodus, (3) The forgiving waters of Ezekiel all find their fulfillment in Jesus!
In Jesus everything is made new: (1) new creation, (2) new liberation, and (3) new level of forgiveness.
This newness is as radical as is life coming out of death, his resurrected life coming out of his suffering and death.
In the Letter to the Romans, Paul assures us that through the waters of baptism we have risen with Christ from death to new life. His rising from the dead assures us of a similar rising.
So the renewal of our baptismal vows in a moment on this most sacred of nights draws us into this new beginning in water.
(1) It isn’t just the life-giving waters of creation that water and nourish the earth. (2) It isn’t just the liberating waters of the Exodus that free us from society’s ills. (3) It isn’t just the forgiving waters Ezekiel promised. This is water that raises the dead to life!
As St. Paul says, “We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life.”
Conclusion
The readings clearly are a story about the role of water in our relationship with God. And Jesus’ rising from the dead has given water a wholly new potential for us to live in God in the moment and to live with God forever.
The Lord is risen and you who have been baptized in Christ have risen with him. Alleluia! Happy Easter!
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