Fire...Candles...Bells....Alleluias.... What next? Well, I'm going to tell you what is next! And I'm going to tell you what we are going to do.... We are going to ask some questions. They're going to be questions about faith, questions about Jesus. And we are going to ask our catechumens, those who have never been baptized before and are baptized among us tonight. And we are going to ask our candidates, those who have been baptized in other Christian traditions and join us tonight. And we are going to ask everybody here some questions.

Now, I'm not going to tell you about the questions, but I am going to tell you four things about the answers. The first thing about the answer, is that it is personal. We could ask you to say, "Do you believe?" And you'd say, "We do," or "Some people do," or "They do," or "Others do." We are going to ask you to make it personal and to say, "I do." It reminds me of that great spiritual, "You gotta walk that lonesome valley." You got to walk it by yourself. Nobody else can walk it for you.... You got to walk it by yourself. That's one reason why it's "I" do. The other is, I really think our levels of faith are different for different people. Our levels of committment are different. There's a slight difference in how we understand the different words. And, together, each of us steps forward. But we say according to our belief and our conviction, "I do."

The second thing about the answer, besides it being personal, is it's public. It's public. You know, you hear a lot about spiritual life and interior life and inner life and prayer life. But that, left alone and by itself, is un-Christian because the Christian view and the view of following Jesus Christ is one that says, "You gotta go public with it." It's not enough to have a relationship with your God, and the wisdom of your God, that's interior, that's internal, that's private and that's secret. And, I think the reason for that is it's central to Christ and to Christianity. But it's central to Christianity and Christ because it's also central to what it means to be fully human. When we talk about our relationships, they can't just be unspoken and unshared. When we talk about wisdom, what good is wisdom if you don't share your wisdom with somebody? When we talk about truth, as Pilate said the other day, "What is truth" unless you stand for it and share it publicly? And what is a virtue like patriotism unless you give it flesh and bones and make it public? And what is love unless you speak it and share it? So, the second thing about your answers, besides being personal, we ask them to be public. We ask you to witness.

It strikes me the great thing about the Apostles and those that experienced the Risen Jesus the first time, it's nice they told us that the tomb was empty. It's nice they told us that some experienced the Risen Jesus. But it's their witness that convinces me. The fact that these men and women who were scared to death, turned around and turned the world upside down because of Who they had met! That's what convinces me and that's what convinces the world, our witness. Our witness.... We need to share that!

The third thing about your answer, besides being personal, besides being public, it is also on-going. Let me tell you what I mean by that. It is on-going because, as I look around, not so much at our catechumens but at everybody else, we've got a lot of "repeat offenders" here. You've done this before. You've done this before. We've all done this before. And yet we repeat it because it is one thing to say that we believe in Jesus, that we make a personal decision, or that we are saved, or that we are believers. It is one thing to say that. It is one thing to get ourselves right with our God. But after that, it's a struggle. It's a journey. We have to come back again and again. We have to move through salvation with fear and trembling, as St. Paul said he did, or with doubts and questions, as St. Thomas the Apostle did, or with failures and weakness, as St. Peter did. And it's great that we profess this faith and we come back as "repeat offenders" before a God Who is a God of second chances. Not really second chances because our God is bigger than we, and our God says, "All right, you guys forgive one another seventy times seven!" Where does that leave our God? And yet, we come back again and again to profess our faith so that we might grow in what we have promised, for we do make a promise in Baptism and in faith, and we have miles to go before we sleep.

And the fourth thing about the answers, besides being personal and public and on-going, it's in community. You have to walk that lonesome valley. You have to walk it by yourself. But you don't got to walk it alone.... not alone! We gather in a community that for 2000 years continues to share the stories of Jesus, and the memory of Jesus, and to be what we call a "sacrament," that, as a community, not only in our actions such as Baptism and Eucharist, but in our life as a community, we point to and we make present the Risen Christ.

So we profess and celebrate a faith that is personal and public, that is on-going and that is in the framework of a community that is almost 2000 years at doing this.... That's worth celebrating! For that, it's worth starting a fire. It's worth lighting a candle. It's worth ringing bells. It's worth singing Alleluia. And, just for good measure, in a few moments, it will be worth my dousing all of you with fresh Baptismal water. All of you! So we celebrate a faith in the God of Our Lord Jesus Christ Who conquers death and lasting evil with love and with hope and with Resurrection. Christ is Risen. Christ is Risen indeed! Alleluia!!