<html><body><div>Here's the Great Vigil homily draft. </div><div><br></div><div>Bob</div><div><br></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY THE GREAT VIGIL OF EASTER<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">9 FIRST COVENANT READINGS 26<sup>th</sup> MARCH, 2016<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">ROMANS 6:3-11 NINE PSALMS/CANTICLES<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">LUKE 24:1-12<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span><i><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Once in the dark of night,</span></i><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br><i> Inflamed with love and yearning, I arose</i><br><i> (O coming of delight!)</i><br><i> And went, as no one knows,</i> <br><i> When all my house lay long in deep repose</i><br><br><i> All in the dark went right,</i><br><i> Down secret steps, disguised in other clothes, </i><br><i> (O coming of delight!)</i><br><i> In dark when no one knows, </i><br><i> When all my house lay long in deep repose</i>. <sup>1</sup><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> “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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> 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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> 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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> 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,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span><i><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">I went without my sight</span></i><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br><i> Without a light to guide</i><br><i> Except the heart that lit me from inside.<o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> Something within kept the light alive and enabled him to overcome </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">everything.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> 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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> Our souls <b><u>CAN</u></b> 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. <b><u>THIS</u></b> is the message of today. All those stories about God’s interaction in the past – they’re <b><u>NOT</u></b> 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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> And when we find that all the stories we heard tonight <b><u>CAN</u></b> 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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> 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. B</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">ut 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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> What <b><u>IS</u></b> 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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> This is what enabled St. John to make his pilgrimage.</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> 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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> Jesus Christ is risen. Darkness has <b><u>NOT</u></b> 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!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">NOTE:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.3333px;">[1]</span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> <i>“</i></span><i><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Dark Night of the Soul”</span></i><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> b</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">y St. John of the Cross translated by A.Z. Foreman <a href="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">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</a></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>