by Fr. Rich Andre, C.S.P.
April 5, 2026

Paulist Fr. Rich Andre preached this homily on the Easter Vigil on April 4, 2026, at Old St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Chicago, IL. There are many options for the readings at the Easter Vigil. The people of the Paulist Center proclaimed Genesis 1:1 – 2:2; Genesis 22:1-18; Exodus 14:15 – 15:1; Isaiah 54:5a, 10-14; Isaiah 55:1-11; Baruch 3:9-15, 32 – 4:4; Ezekiel 36:16-17a, 18-28; Romans 6:3-11; and Matthew 28:1-10.

Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, there are many stories of an angel or God appearing to people. Often, the angel or God gives the same greeting as the angel and Jesus give to the two women on Easter Sunday: “Do not be afraid.”

We will always have some anxiety in this lifetime. It’s a God-given emotion. Yet Mary of Magdala and Mary, the mother of James and Joseph, allow themselves to be overcome with joy, running quickly to share the good news. Contrast that with others in the story who were overcome with fear. The chief priests, the elders, and the scribes are so fearful of Jesus’ teachings that they devise trumped up charges to have him killed. Pilate and the soldiers are too fearful of provoking political unrest to risk sparing Jesus’ life. The apostles flee the Roman soldiers and the Jewish leaders, for fear of being killed themselves. The guards at the tomb “became like dead men” upon seeing the angel on Easter Sunday.

How do the two women find joy, when everyone else is afraid? They didn’t know the scriptures as well as the chief priests, elders, and scribes, they were more vulnerable than the twelve apostles who fled, and they saw exactly the same things as what the guards saw. The ground had literally shaken, but the universe-shaking implications of Jesus’ death and resurrection were still unknown. Even still, the women were overcome with joy.

Unlike the apostles and guards who didn’t want to get in trouble with the authorities, the women weren’t focused on themselves. They experienced joy in seeing that their friend and teacher, Jesus of Nazareth, was alive. They experienced joy in realizing that his resurrection confirmed his teachings to love one another.

They experienced joy in Jesus immediately forgiving the apostles who had fled in fear and inviting them to meet him in Galilee. Not only is Jesus victorious over death, but he continues to live out the message of God’s reconciling love.

By its very biblical definition, joy is infectious. In the Hebrew Bible, joy is always about connection, either connecting with God or connecting with other people. If you haven’t shared your joy with someone else, your joy is not complete.

The source of the women’s joy came from what they experienced in Jerusalem. But the completion of their joy, according to Matthew, happened when the gospel began to spread in Galilee. (Stay tuned: we’ll hear about Jesus’ meeting with the disciples on Mother’s Day weekend.) Why Galilee? It was the home base of the disciples. It made the most sense for the disciples to start living out the gospel there, among their family, friends, and neighbors, among people they knew in a culture in which they were already familiar.

And it’s the same for us. The source of our joy may come from what we celebrate inside the walls of Old St. Mary’s, and our joy is strengthened in the sacraments we receive. But our joy becomes complete when we share it with our family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers.

Tonight, there are 10 people among us who will be strengthened in their joy by receiving the sacraments of initiation. Sinai, Gianna, and Albert will promise to die to themselves in baptism so that they may rise to new life in Christ. Sade, Jeff, Ian, Amir, and Abbey will join the three of them in being accepted into full communion with the Catholic Church. Richard, Jimmy, and Brent are Catholics completing their initiation joining with the other 8 in being sealed and strengthened by the Holy Spirit. As Cardinal Cupich blessed the sacred chrism 4 days ago, he said that “the anointing with this oil causes our faces to be joyful and serene.”

But you’ve already received the joy. This morning at our retreat, Maryann commented on the joy already on your faces. How did the 10 of you first receive that joy? I haven’t heard all your individual stories in detail, but I’ve heard several of them, and in each case, you first received it by someone else sharing their joy with you. That is, they completed their joy by connecting with you. Some of you first connected with the joy of family members. Others, with people you were dating. And for others, it was with your co-workers. And indeed, the sponsors beside you tonight are family, friends, and co-workers, just as the people who first had the gospel spread to them were the family, friends, and co-workers of original disciples in Galilee.

Reflecting on what Matthew’s account of the two women witnessing the resurrection, one theologian wrote: “Resurrection faith does not arise on the basis of evidence, of which the chief priests and soldiers had plenty, but on the basis of the experienced presence of the risen Christ, by testimony of those to whom he appeared, and by his own continuing presence among us.”¹

Christ continues to be present among us in the scriptures we proclaim, in our gathering as the Body of Christ, as we do tonight as we have done with the 10 of you every week since September. But tonight, Christ is present among us in our sharing the sacraments with you. When the bread and the wine are brought forward, the grains of wheat and the grapes of wine that have been broken and crushed represent both our anxieties and our joys. And then we will ask God to transform them into the very body and blood of Christ to be taken back into our bodies. We gather with you, we share our stories with you, we break the bread with you, so that our joy may be complete.

That phrase “joy may be complete” probably sounds familiar. At the Last Supper, Jesus instructed the disciples: “If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete” (John 15:9-11).

We are a community committed to sharing with others what we have seen and heard about Jesus Christ. We remain in Christ’s love. As we will proclaim in our Eucharistic prayers throughout the Easter season, we are “overcome with Paschal joy.” And tonight, in witnessing our joy completed in you, Abbey, Albert, Amir, Brent, Gianna, Jeff, Jimmy, Ian, Richard, Sade, and Sinai, you are now fully fortified to share it with your family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers, so that your joy may be complete.

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