Episode 46: Easter: "God has not turned His back on us"

Archbishop Lucas gave this homily during the Easter Vigil Mass at St. Cecilia Cathedral on April 11, 2020. Transcript: I wish a very happy Easter to all of you on behalf of Father Grewe, our pastor, my brother priests and deacons, and in my own name, the joy and the peace of our Risen Savior be with you. Thank you to all of you who are joining us via livestream on this holiest night of the year. We miss having all of you here at the cathedral. Such a beautiful liturgy has been prepared and it's such a privilege to celebrate it and a privilege to share it with you as we can, even as we all pray, asking God's mercy that before long, we can be delivered from the worst of the pandemic and can have the chance to come together again to celebrate all kinds of good things, but especially to celebrate the sacred liturgy together. I'm grateful that we've been able to bring these liturgies to you electronically these days of Holy Week, but I think we've all felt that we've been missing something as blessed as we have been to be together in this way. I know last evening when we celebrated the liturgy of the Lord's Passion and Death, that I missed being able to sit in the cathedra and watch so many people who always come here to the cathedral for Good Friday, missed being able to see each of them come forward and venerate the Lord's cross–so many different backgrounds, so many different kinds of piety, so many different stages of people in relationship to the Lord and to the church, but all welcome in the embrace of the crucified Lord. And tonight I miss in a special way what would have been the baptism of the elect here in the cathedral parish–those who have been preparing for the Easter sacraments, the others who are ready and anxious to come into full communion with the Catholic Church. We're missing the elect and these candidates in our parish churches all across the archdiocese tonight. Really, baptism is central focus of the liturgy of the Easter Vigil. So we're missing something, but of course the Lord is always offering us something. Always offering us an opportunity. I know when I'm performing the rites of baptism, –it's a great privilege to do that–I'm focused on what I'm doing. I'm focused on the one being baptized and others who are there witnessing it are also focused on the elect and focused on surrounding that person with prayer and with faith during the ceremony. Maybe tonight, then, since we're not participating in a baptism, we have the opportunity to think about ourselves, not to focus on someone else, but to recall our own Baptism, to recall the beautiful truth that we have been baptized into the death and resurrection of our savior, Jesus Christ. We have the opportunity to reflect for a few moments on what this means for us. What does this fact that we have been baptized tell us about God? What does it tell us about ourselves? One of the things that it tells us about God–we've been baptized, you and I–it tells us that God has not given up on the human family, the family of Adam and Eve, and he's not giving up on you and me. We heard in the readings earlier in the liturgy how lovingly God created everything that we see in the world around us, but He gave special care in the creation of man and woman, creating them, creating us in his own divine image and likeness. But Adam and Eve turned their back on the plan of God, and we've all done that in turn. We created a separation between ourselves and God, but God's not ready to settle for that separation. God has not given up on the children of Adam and Eve. Rather, he claims us as his own sons and daughters. Through the power of the death and resurrection of Jesus, God's favor rests upon us and we receive in baptism promises of life in Christ, not only in this world, but eternal life in the world to come. Eter