Tonight is above all a celebration of life. In the readings we hear how God continually gives us life, beginning with the story of creation. God made everything, gave life to all living things.

God saw all that he had made and it was very good. His creation and conservation continues through the liberation of God's people through the Exodus, the great event in which God's people are brought out of the half-life of slavery into full freedom and full life. We need no longer be slaves but are now God's own people. As the crucified Jesus breaks through the bonds of death in glorious resurrection, he opens the gates of life for us too. "I AM the Resurrection and the Life." "I have come that they may have life and life in greater abundance." As many enter our community through Baptism, it is a time for us to reflect on the meaning and the effectiveness of our own Baptism in our lives right now. Let this night be a time for all of us, individually and together to revitalize our Catholic life and to involve ourselves more in the life of our parish community.