We begin the Easter Season or period of 50 days in which the death and resurrection of Christ and all the time he spent afterwards with the apostles is commemorated. To begin this period we reproduce here the full text of Pope Francis' homily at the Easter Sunday Mass.
We begin the Easter Season or period of 50 days in which the death and resurrection of Christ and all the time he spent afterwards with the apostles is commemorated.
[video:https://youtu.be/LPU4nh69TVI width:600px]
Below we reproduce for all of you the complete text of Pope Francis' homily at the Easter Sunday Mass, thanks to the translation of Vatican Radio and the collaboration of our source ACI PRENSA:
Today the Church repeats, sings, shouts, Jesus has risen, but how is this? Peter, John and the women went to the tomb and it was empty, but He was not there. And they went with their hearts closed with sadness, the sadness of a defeat, the Master, their Master, the one they loved so much has been judged and died and there is no return from death.
This is defeat, this is the path of defeat, the path to the grave. But the angel tells them: he is not here, he has risen. The first announcement, he has risen! Then the confusion, the closed heart, the apparitions, they closed, the whole day in the upper room because they were afraid that what happened to Jesus would happen to them.
And the Church does not stop saying to our failures, to our closed, fearful hearts... stop! The Lord has risen. But if the Lord has risen, how do these things happen, how do so many misfortunes, diseases, human trafficking, war, destruction, mutilation, revenge, hatred happen... where is the Lord?
Yesterday I called a young man with a serious illness, a cultured young man, an engineer, and speaking to give him a sign of faith I told him: "There are no explanations for what is happening to you, look at Jesus on the cross, God did that with his son, there is no other explanation."
And he answered me: "Yes. But he asked his son and the son said yes. But they didn't ask me if I wanted this, and I didn't say yes." This moves us. None of us have been asked if we are happy with what is happening in the world, if we are willing to carry this cross forward... and the cross goes forward and faith in Jesus collapses, that is why the Church continues to say Jesus is risen!
And this is not a fantasy. The resurrection of Christ is not a party with flowers; It's something else. It is the Mystery of the discarded stone that ends up being the foundation of our existence, Christ is risen! And this means in this throwaway culture, where that which is of no use takes the “use and throw away” route and everything that is of no use is discarded; That stone that has been discarded is a source of life.
We too, little stones, in this land of pain, of tragedy, with faith in the risen Christ, have meaning. In the midst of so much calamity, without looking beyond, there is not a wall but a horizon. There is life, there is glory, there is the cross with this ambivalence.
Look ahead, don't close yourself off, you little stone have a meaning in life because you are a stone taken from that great stone that the evil of sin has discarded.
What does the Church tell us today in the face of so many tragedies? Simply this; the discarded stone is not really discarded. The pebbles that believe and cling to that pebble are not discarded, they have meaning. With this feeling the Church repeats from within its heart, Christ is risen!
Let each of us think a little about the daily problems, about the illnesses that each of us or one of our family members has experienced; Let us think about wars, about human tragedies, and simply with a humble voice, without flowers, only before God, before ourselves.
I don't know how this is going but I am sure that Christ has risen and I am betting on this. Brothers and sisters, this is what I wanted to tell you. Come home today repeating in your hearts: Christ is risen!
January 26, 2022
Happy Easter to all the Conceptionist Religious!