[Propertalk] Great Vigil 2016

[Robert P Morrison]

Here's the Great Vigil homily draft. 
Bob

	THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY THE GREAT VIGIL OF EASTER

	9 FIRST COVENANT READINGS 26th MARCH, 2016

	ROMANS 6:3-11 NINE PSALMS/CANTICLES

	LUKE 24:1-12

	 _Once in the dark of night,_
_ Inflamed with love and yearning, I arose_
_ (O coming of delight!)_
_ And went, as no one knows,_ 
_ When all my house lay long in deep repose_

_ All in the dark went right,_
_ Down secret steps, disguised in other clothes, _
_ (O coming of delight!)_
_ In dark when no one knows, _
_ When all my house lay long in deep repose_. 1

	  “The Dark Night of the Soul” is the English translation of a
poem written by the sixteenth century Spanish mystic and priest known
as St. John of the Cross. It describes the journey of the soul as it
seeks union with God. It talks about being in that wonderful
experience of seeing and knowing peace, and security, and love. But
the poem acknowledges that everything begins from darkness, just as
creation did.

	 And that’s where we started tonight – dark, or close to it.
There are times when I think we take light for granted – physical
light inside and outside buildings, spiritual light within our souls
and those of people around us. But then, the world has a way of
bringing us back to earth, when things seem to go wrong, when people
are hurt or killed, when plans don’t work out, when we feel so down.

	 We’ve all been there. It’s dark as it can be, so dark that it
feels such an effort to get through it. Probably we’ve all
experienced times like these, when friends are torn from us and we
don’t know what we’ll do. When plans for a long-anticipated event
came to naught. It seems so difficult and personal to sit in the dark
and not feel, hear or see anyone. But it’s at moments like these
that the tiniest spark can shed so much light.

	 St. John of the Cross went through many changes in his life. Even
within his vocation as a Christian monk, he changed orders, his rule
of life had to be altered several times. He ran afoul of other monks
who didn’t approve of his devotional habits and practices. He was
jailed, he was beaten, he was isolated from all other humans – and
this was what other monks did to him! Yet, somehow, he clung to his
faith. The writing of those who’d gone before him; the witness of
his peers; his own experience of God in his life all gave him the
ability to persist. As he put it,

	 _I went without my sight_
_ Without a light to guide_
_ Except the heart that lit me from inside._

	 Something within kept the light alive and enabled him to overcome
everything.

	 This is why we gathered tonight. We have the word which sustained
our spiritual ancestors for thousands of years. We have the stories of
our parents and peers. We have those events and feelings from our own
personal lives, all of which speak to us when so much of the world
seems hell-bent – literally – on darkness and destruction. We
pray, as one of the collects from Compline puts it: “Be our light in
the darkness, O Lord, and in your great mercy defend us from all
perils and dangers of this night;” and we hope for the touch of God,
the reassurance from God, that neither darkness, nor danger, nor
threats, nor disasters will overwhelm us.

	 Our souls CAN seem to spend so much time being challenged that
it’s remarkable that we get along as well as we do. But then, I
think each of us has the God-given gift to find assurance somewhere,
so that we’ll be able to move on with our lives, knowing that
darkness, nor meanness, nor anything else will destroy us. THIS is the
message of today. All those stories about God’s interaction in the
past – they’re NOT just stories. They become real for us, so real,
in fact, that no matter what happens, no matter who may try to hurt
us, we know that we walk in the company of the risen Jesus whom not
even death could overwhelm.

	 And when we find that all the stories we heard tonight CAN make a
difference for us, and that Jesus’ power will sustain us, then we
may discover that the faith of St. John of the Cross may be ours too.
From the dark night of his soul he was able to make the journey
towards the intense joy of being in God’s Presence, just as Jesus
made that same journey from the dark and frightening cave in which His
body had been sealed.

	 And here’s one of the points that continue to frustrate and
trouble us. Threats of death and their fulfillment; abuse by speech
and action; it continues unabated. We want that stopped. We expect it
to be stopped. But Jesus’ death and His eruption from the tomb is
not about the eradication of sin and the erasure of all that works
against God and God’s desires. Till the end of time, organisms from
the tiniest single cell to the largest corporate entity will continue
to run amok.

	 What IS promised, the assurance that Jesus’ resurrection gives us,
is that, no matter how dark, how depressing, how dangerous any given
situation may be, God’s loving power cannot ever be overwhelmed.

	 This is what enabled St. John to make his pilgrimage.

	 Often, all that it takes for this to come about for us is a word, a
simple word or phrase, a touch, to scatter the darkness and to fill us
so that our hearts light us from inside.

	 Jesus Christ is risen. Darkness has NOT overpowered the Light. So
lift up your hearts. Let us lift them up to the Lord. Let us give
thanks to the Lord our God!

	NOTE:

	[1] _“__Dark Night of the Soul”_ by St. John of the Cross
translated by A.Z. Foreman
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwisyon8gdrLAhUJ9GMKHVAQCfoQFggiMAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpoemsintranslation.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F09%2Fsaint-john-of-cross-dark-night-of-soul.html&usg=AFQjCNFEoeRaR53VfRdfiVm2HwsU1r-PHA
[1]

	 

Links:
------
[1]
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwisyon8gdrLAhUJ9GMKHVAQCfoQFggiMAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpoemsintranslation.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F09%2Fsaint-john-of-cross-dark-night-of-soul.html&usg=AFQjCNFEoeRaR53VfRdfiVm2HwsU1r-PHA

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://stsams.org/pipermail/propertalk_stsams.org/attachments/20160325/93994235/attachment.htm>