Homilies - Fr. Daniel Scheidt - St. Vincent de Paul · St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church, Fort Wayne, Indiana

Homily - April 5th, 2026 - The Resurrection of the Lord The Mass of Easter Day - 9am

April 8, 2026·19 min·1 clip

Fr. Scheidt reveals that two real parish couples—Will Gray and Emily Oberle, Brian Smith and Julia Schuster—each independently proposed on Good Friday in the parish graveyard.

1. Fr. Daniel Scheidt's Easter Sunday 9am homily at St. Vincent de Paul in Fort Wayne opens with the proclamation of John 20:1-9, Mary Magdalene's discovery of the empty tomb. 2. Fr. Scheidt is the sole homilist; the couples Will Gray and Emily Oberle, and Brian Smith and Julia Schuster are named as members of the parish community. 3. The core thesis is that Easter is not an idea but a lived fact: that real people in the parish are choosing to go to the grave—literally—and finding resurrection there. 4. Fr. Scheidt notes that after the 11:30 Mass, parish children will have an Easter egg hunt in the St. Vincent's cemetery, where each egg contains not only chocolate but also the name of a person buried there and a prayer of thanksgiving. 5. He mentions Father Fettig, a predecessor priest buried in the cemetery under a 'big black stone underneath the image of Christ risen from the dead,' whose death anniversary falls on Easter Sunday 2026. 6. St. Vincent's teenagers, on their own initiative, camped with tents in the oratory graveyard at the corner of Auburn and Wallen on Holy Thursday night, praying in shifts in Holy Hours through the dark. 7. Fr. Scheidt jokes that 'teenagers are teenagers, they do wacky rebellious things' before pivoting to describe adults who choose the graveyard as a regular dating destination. 8. He narrates the story of a man who asked his fiancée on a 'hot date' to sit on a bench with a kneeler in front of the Oratory of St. Mary Magdalene, reading Ezekiel's inscription: 'O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them.' 9. A second man, independently, also decided to propose in the parish graveyard on Good Friday; the two men discovered by coincidence that they had made the same plan. 10. Fr. Scheidt reveals that a priest named Father Jonathan North once told seventh-grade boys at St. Vincent's school to 'love your wife like that'—meaning like Christ's love on Good Friday—and that one of those boys bought a crown-of-thorns ring to wear as a reminder to watch for his future wife. 11. That same man gave his fiancée an engagement ring in the shape of a crown of thorns with a diamond, treating the cross and resurrection as 'a single nuptial mystery.' 12. Fr. Scheidt says 'this is a fact, this is reality, this has pierced my heart' before naming both couples: Will Gray and Emily Oberle on the youth ministry team, and Brian Smith and Julia Schuster. 13. He interprets the two proposals as evidence of a 'world of witnesses rather than spectators,' paralleling Mary Magdalene, Peter, and John who ran to the tomb despite sorrow and doubt. 14. The phrase 'deathless love greets them' is used to describe what the disciples encountered at the empty tomb, and what the couples encountered at the graveyard. 15. Fr. Scheidt notes that 30 people were baptized and another 30 received into full communion with the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil Mass the night before. 16. He interprets Jesus's words at the Last Supper—'Take, this is my body, given up to you'—as the words of a husband giving himself to his wife, treating the Eucharist as a nuptial act. 17. The homily closes with the image of the Book of Revelation's 'wedding feast of the Lamb,' with the phrase 'the spirit and the bride say come, Lord Jesus, come.' 18. The preaching style is narrative and pastoral, building a long hypothetical 'imagine a world' arc before pivoting to 'this is a fact' with the named couples. 19. Listeners who enjoy homilies that blend scripture, parish storytelling, and sacramental theology through concrete human examples will find this episode memorable. 20. Those seeking abstract theological argument, academic exegesis, or secular content should skip this episode.

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