Now, while you are still standing, maybe you can very gently blow out
the candles so you don’t blow it into your neighbor, and hold it
still for a moment..... You may want to keep the bells handy in case
you want to interrupt my homily at some point.

Darkness and fire, bells and candles, story of Resurrection and songs
of Alleluia. What next? What next? Well, next, some of you, we are
going to douse, not just in water but in the name and the love and
the life of God. And some more of you we are going to anoint with
oil, with the confirming chrism of the Holy Spirit, of God’s power in
your hearts and in your lives. And all of you are invited to be
nourished at the table of the Lord, with the bread of life and the
cup of salvation.

But before we do that, we are going to ask you some questions. And
the questions are familiar. So I am not going to go over them. I’m
going to say something about the answers. The answers are very
special. They are answers like “I do,” or “I believe.” But let me
tell you a few things about the answers. First of all, the answers
are very personal. It’s “I.” It’s not “They believe” or even “We
believe” or “My parents believe” or “My nationality believes.” Those
of us especially who are Irish or Philippino or Latina, we think just
because we are born that way we have to believe. It doesn’t work that
way. I love the story of Archbishop Fulton Sheen, the great TV
preacher, who was asked to go to the City Council in New York and to
pray for the City Council. He walked in, in his bright purple robes
and he said, “I am not going to pray for you. There are three things
the man has to do for himself. He has to blow his own nose. He has to
make his own love, and he has to say his own prayers.” No one can
make an act of faith for you. You have to make the act of faith. And
that’s why we say, “Not my parents, not my family, not my
nationality, but I believe. I do.” They’re very personal, the answers.

The answers are also very public. You know we think of our
spirituality and our interior spiritual life as something very
private, as just belonging to us. But, you know, faith is like love.
You love someone very much and you go through life and never once
tell them? Never once show it? Never once say it? That ain’t love,
folks! And if we are so private about our faith that we never once
make it public, that ain’t faith either. I find it reassuring to hear
the gospel stories that they found in empty tombs, that Mary
Magdalene and Peter and John experienced the risen Jesus. But that is
not what convinces me. What convinces me is they went public. They
went public when they were scared to death. They went public when it
cost them their lives, their imprisonment. They went public. That’s
what convinced me. Our faith has to also, at least at times, be very
public.

Also our answer, “I do,” “I believe,” is really in process. It’s a
work in process. Now, some of you are sharing this act of faith for
the first time in a public setting. But most of us are repeat
offenders. We’ve done this year after year or we’ve even done it
Sunday after Sunday. Thank goodness our God is a God of second
chances! Our God lets us be less than perfect. We’re in process.
We’re on the way. We’re not perfect, but we’re not stopping. So “I
do, I believe,” is personal, public. It’s not perfect but we’re not
stopping.

And finally my “I do,” my “I believe” says I want to be committed to
make a difference. One thing the gospel does again and again is call
on the people in the Jesus movement, the people in the Christian
family, the people in the Catholic tradition, to make a difference in
the world. The gospel calls for justice. It calls for peace. It calls
for healing. It calls for hope. It calls for Shalom. And Jesus says,
“And you do it. You do it. Don’t wait for magic. Rather you be an
instrument of what you pray for.”

So there we are. The answers are deeply personal, very public.
They’re not perfect. But they are a committment to make a difference
in our world. I think that deserves fire being started and candles
being lit and Alleluias being sung and bells being rung because we
believe that Jesus lives and we also commit ourselves to prove that
he lives, by the way we live. Christ is risen. Christ is risen
indeed! Alleluia!