The sermon of Vigil Eater by rev. father Yvon Fillven,   4th April, 2026

>> Baptism is a new creation

 

Dear faithful,

In the liturgy of our Easter Vigil, everything centers on baptism. It is a real baptism if candidates are present, or at least a renewal of our baptismal promises that reminds each of us of our own baptism.

 

Consider this: The Church attaches such importance to the sacrament of Baptism that she devotes an entire ceremony to it. This is truly the heart of our night. The Resurrection, as such, is celebrated on Easter Sunday, tomorrow morning, for it is on Sunday morning that the Risen Christ appears to his disciples. What we celebrate on this night is Baptism itself. And in doing so, we recall our own baptism; we must better appreciate its importance.

 

Based on the first reading, I would like to explore one aspect of baptism: baptism is a new creation.

 

I. Creation and the Seventh Day

   We heard the account of the creation of the universe in the first reading; the central teaching of this text is that God created everything and that everything he created is perfect. “God saw that it was good,” we hear repeatedly in this reading. And in the case of man on the sixth day, we even hear: “God saw that it was very good.” Everything is therefore perfect, complete; nothing that God created is flawed or poorly made.

 

  Everything is very good, but the sixth day is not the last of the cycle of creation; after the sixth day there is a seventh, and it is only on the seventh day that we read: “Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, along with all their array.” Creation is materially completed on the sixth day, but it is fully completed only on the seventh. This has a profound meaning.

 

What is this seventh day? It is the day of God Himself, the holy day, the one God has set apart for Himself. It is Sunday: the day set apart for God, the day of prayer. This seventh day reveals the purpose of creation; it is a spiritual purpose. The purpose of creation is that man, who is at its center, may know and love God. All animal and plant creatures exist to enable man to fulfill this spiritual calling: to know and love God.

 

II/ The Primacy of the Spiritual

  It is interesting to draw a brief comparison with the country where we are now. Korea is a country that has experienced tremendous economic growth, which has enabled it to rise from the ashes of war. This rebirth is the result of the hard work and sacrifices of several generations; it is truly something to admire.

 

  Yes, but at the same time, there is a downside: a fixation on materialism. As a result, Korea has become one of the countries where cosmetic surgery is most commonly performed, which reflects a certain neglect of the soul. Having good roads and beautiful buildings is of no use if we forget our soul. The same goes for the education of children: devoting oneself to earning good degrees is of no use if it leads to forgetting one’s soul.

 

  The human and natural level of a society’s development or an individual’s success is not enough; it is very important but is only a means to a higher end, namely, enabling people to know and love God. If we limit ourselves to the natural level of social organization and forget humanity’s supernatural vocation, then people gradually become selfish, without hope, childless, joyless, …

 

  This should guide us in the choices we make regarding family life, the upbringing of our children, and so on. It is important for family life to be well-organized, for there to be enough money, for the children to receive a good education, and so on—but all of this would be completely pointless if we were to forget the goal that gives meaning to everything else: to know and love God. For example if we neglect catechism and religious teaching. We must always put things in the right order: degrees, careers—all of this is a means and not an end, a

 

  Let us therefore never forget that the purpose of God’s creation is spiritual; after the sixth day comes the seventh; man is not made solely to work but is made to know God.

III/ Original sin

  Alas, man has lost his connection with God because of original sin; all too often he forgets his soul and loses himself in material desires. This is why all men need to be recreated through the sacrament of Baptism; they need to regain the friendship with God lost through Adam’s sin. Adam indeed committed a spiritual sin, a sin of pride consisting in a rejection of God, and we are victims of this sin to the extent that when we are born, we reject God.

 

This rejection leads to the collapse of everything else, for it amounts to rejecting the purpose of creation... Much like in a Gothic cathedral where the vaults are supported by a keystone in the center of the arch; if you remove that keystone, everything collapses. The same is true of our human existence: the rejection of God leads to the dysfunction of everything else, leading to uncontrollable chaos: desires become evil and divide us, people no longer know how to work together, societies tear themselves apart… this is our sad world. All of this has a single cause: the rejection of God, which has destroyed the beautiful order of God’s creation.

 

And the only way to restore that order is to be baptized. Let us therefore rejoice in our baptism; when we renew its promises, let us give thanks to God: he has made us new people, and let us pray for all those who will be baptized this night.

 

Dear faithful,

This is what baptism has brought to us and to those who have just been baptized this evening: it has recreated us by restoring our friendship with God and the true meaning of our existence. But baptism is only a beginning; it calls us to live in accordance with this baptism, that is, to put the elements of our existence in the right order: to put God first so that all things may find their proper place.