The celebration of Easter is often called the greatest celebration of the Church.
But that does not mean that the other great feasts of the Church like Christmas and the Annunciation and Holy Thursday are not that great a feast.
The greatness that is meant here is that it is the high-point and the climax of the celebrations of our faith.
And Easter also sheds light as well as reveals the subtle meanings of the other feasts.
For example, at Easter, we celebrate the Resurrection – Jesus rose from the dead and conquered sin and death.
The Resurrection showed that Jesus is divine – He rose from the dead.
But it also points to His humanity – He suffered, died and was buried.
And that is what we celebrate at Christmas – that Jesus, the Word of God was made flesh; divinity also took on the nature of humanity.
So Easter sheds light and also reveals the subtle meanings of the other celebrations of our faith.
Easter is also the greatest feast of our faith because when we truly understand the meaning of Easter, we will also begin to understand what our faith is all about.
In the gospel, we heard about the empty tomb. Mary of Magdala came to the tomb and she saw that the stone had been rolled away and she ran to tell Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved.
They ran to the tomb. They saw the linen cloths on the ground, and the cloth that had been over His head.
The gospel ended off by saying that till then, they had failed to understand the teachings of scripture, that He must rise from the dead. But later on, they would understand.
Today we had 13 infants who are to be baptized soon in this Mass.
We see the ordinary signs of our faith being used: water for baptism, oil for anointing, baptism garment and the baptism candles.
We hear prayers and see the ritual gestures being performed.
In all this, are we able to grasp the deeper meanings of our faith, especially in the Resurrection of Jesus?
Jesus rose from the dead and He has given us new life and He will also give new life to these 13 infants through baptism.
And later on we will renew our baptismal promises and we will be sprinkled with holy water.
And for this Easter, the Church is giving you a bottle of holy water.
We want to emphasize that it is holy water that is being given and its put into a respectable and dignified holy water bottle.
When we truly understand the meaning of holy water, then we won’t put holy water in a reused mineral water bottle.
Because holy water reminds us of our baptism into Christ and by His suffering, death and Resurrection, He has saved us and will lead us to understand the deeper mysteries of our faith.
So bring the holy water home and bless the home with it, because the home is the first place where we will live out our baptismal promises and make it a holy dwelling for God.
Bring it to your workplace and bless your work-station, because it is there that we will offer up the work of our hands for the glory of God.
And of course, let us use the holy water to bless ourselves and our children, so that we will set our hearts on the things of above even while in the midst of the things of earth.
And may we be that holy and consecrated people who are redeemed by Christ, to proclaim the marvelous works of God.