Easter Vigil 11.04.

2020
Kibiko-Sister House

Christ is Risen!!!
Is darkness! The Easter Vigil begins with darkness. The creation start in the
darkness. The darkness itself is the first movement of the liturgy, so we begin our
preparations with that darkness. It represents all darkness, and all the meanings of
darkness - devoid of light; evil thoughts, motivations, deeds; all that is hidden and
secret, deceitful and dishonest, divisive and abusive, immoral and sinful. It's the
darkness of our world, and the darkness in my heart. Darkness and light are halves
of every day ever since that first day. Darkness and light are essential parts of our
lives.
”For weeks now it has been evening. Thick darkness has gathered over our squares, our
streets and our cities; it has taken over our lives, filling everything with a deafening
silence and a distressing void, that stops everything as it passes by; we feel it in the air,
we notice in people’s gestures, their glances give them away.
We find ourselves afraid and lost.” (27.03.2020 Pp Francisc Urbi et orbi)...

When is coming the darkness all of us we become scared, we are afraid to go

outside because can be dangerous for our life, when we find ourselves in that dark,
tight, stinky, lonely place, we must remind ourselves of this truth. There will always
ultimately be light in the midst of the darkness. ” This is the night of which it is written: The
night shall be as bright as day, dazzling is the night for me, and full of gladness.”(Vestirea solemna).
My dear friends we have lit from the blessed fire, the pascal candle symbol of Christ, and we have
came in procession to the altar... What have you noticed? Yes, the road crossed by the flame was lit,
and coming to the altar, borrowing the light for your candle, we experience the power of that light as it
grows, and now all the chapel is more bright, we can see each other and we know who we are, and
please look at this pascal candle, is the flame smaller?... No.

Now, I want you to have in front of your easy the history we have heard in this 9
readings...What have you notice? In the beginning God have put on a small light
creating the man, why?
”God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created
man to make him share in his own blessed life. For this reason, at every time and in every
place, God draws close to man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with
all his strength.”(CCC 1).

He put in him a light, a light that can guide him to seek him, to know him, to
love him, and listening all the readings, we saw that this light has increased, maybe a
little obscure during the Old Testament, but in his splendor whit Christ...”
”What has come into being in him was life, life that was the light of men; and light shines
in darkness, and darkness could not overpower it. The Word was the real light that gives
light to everyone; (In 1, 4,5,8,9)”

Yes, my dear friend, Christ is the real light, that shine and lit the candle of some in
the beginning, but this light was divided to so many, but never dimmed: ” But now we
know the praises of this pillar, which glowing fire ignites for God’s honor, a fire into
many flames divided, yet never dimmed by sharing of its light, (Vestirea solemnă)”.
And we have heard also in the Gospel for this vigil…What happened there…Christ
is risen and The Light couldn’t be hidden under the bowl, he shone even brighter and
rekindled the first light of Mary of Magdala who went to apostle …she said...Christ is
risen and in that moment the candle of Peter*s faith and company rekindled,
and from there, all over the world, until me, until you, Risen Christ light up the others
faith candle, and also after us, because now is our turn to light up the others faith

Fr. Andrei Petrică Imbrea

 Easter Vigil 11.04.2020
Kibiko-Sister House

candle with Risen Christ. Jesus send us, each of us, to light up at least one candle of
faith, at least one, because that one can light another one, and so on, the Light
become bigger, and bigger.
My dear friends, we have received this light…When? In the moment of our
Baptism…” Receive the light of Christ. Parents and godparents, this light is entrusted
to you to be kept burning brightly. This child of yours has been enlightened by Christ.
He (she) is to walk always as a child of the light. May he (she) keep the flame of faith
alive in his (her) heart.”, and many times in our life, and also this evening we are
invited to renew this faith, to re-fresh from the Light.
You must be the light, we must be the light because my dear friends, Christ put
all his trust in us, to go like Mary of Magdala, ”Then go quickly and tell his disciples,
'He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee;
there you will see him.”. Risen Christ entering into Mary of Magdala live, He changed
her life, and the Sacred Scripture says to us… ”Filled with awe and great joy the
women came quickly away from the tomb and ran to tell his disciples….”.
Maybe sometimes we are scarred to proclaim the Breaking News, Christ is Risen,
because this news is new for two thousand years now. Also his disciples were afraid,
but is something in this evening Gospel, that they must do…they must leave for
Galilee, and here I want to say to you what pope Francis told:
”Galilee is the place where they were first called, where everything began!...To
return to Galilee means to re-read everything on the basis of the cross and its victory,
fearlessly: “do not be afraid”…. to re-read everything starting from the end, which is a
new beginning, from this supreme act of love.
For each of us, too, there is a “Galilee” at the origin of our journey with Jesus. “To
go to Galilee” means something beautiful, it means rediscovering our baptism as a
living fountainhead, drawing new energy from the sources of our faith and our
Christian experience. To return to Galilee means above all to return to that blazing
light with which God’s grace touched me at the start of the journey. From that
flame I can light a fire for today and every day, and bring heat and light to my
brothers and sisters.” Where is my Galilee? Do I remember it? Have I forgotten it?
Seek and you will find it! Do not be afraid, do not fear, return to Galilee!
The Gospel is very clear: we need to go back there, to see Jesus risen, and to
become witnesses of his resurrection. It is returning to our first love, in order to
receive the fire which Jesus has kindled in the world and to bring that fire to all people,
to the very ends of the earth.

Christ is Risen!

Fr. Andrei Petrică Imbrea