At 10:00am today (local time in Rome), the Holy Father, Pope Francis presided over the solemn celebration of the Mass for Easter day which took place in Saint Peter's Square.
The celebration began with the ritual of Resurrexit and involved the faithful of Rome as well as pilgrims who had come to Rome from various parts of the world to celebrate the Easter season.
Following the proclamation of the gospel, the Holy Father shared an unscripted homily, the transcription of which is printed below.
Today the Church repeats, chants, cries out: Jesus is risen! But how can this be? Peter, John, the women went to the Tomb and it was empty, He was not there. They went with closed and saddened hearts, hearts filled with the sadness of defeat: the Master, their Teacher, the one who loved them so much and who was justified, was dead. And no one has ever returned from death.
This is a defeat, this is a path of defeat, the road to the tomb. But the Angel said to them: He is not here, he is risen. This is the first proclamation: He is risen. And then came the confusion, the closed hearts, the apparitions. But the disciples remained closed in, locked in the Cenacle all day long, because they were afraid that the same fate that Jesus met could also be theirs.
The Church never stops responding to our defeats, our closed and timid hearts: Stop it, the Lord is risen. But if the Lord is risen, how could these things happen? How can there be so much suffering, disease, human trafficking, mistreatment of people, war, destruction, mutilation, revenge, hatred? Where is the Lord? Yesterday, I called a young boy who has a serious illness, a cultured young man, an engineer. As we spoke, in order to give him some hope, I said: There is no explanation for what is happening to you. Look to Jesus on the Cross, God did that to this Son, and there is no other explanation. And he replied: Yes, but he asked his Son and the Son said yes. He never asked me whether I wanted this. This is moving, none of us is ever asked: Are you happy with what is happening in the world? Are you willing to carry the cross? And the cross continues, and faith in Jesus diminishes. Today, the Church continues to say: Stop, Jesus is risen. And this is not an imaginary thing, the Resurrection of Christ is not a party with lots of flowers. That's beautiful, but that's not all there is, there is more; it is the mystery of the stone that is rolled away that becomes the foundation of our existence.
Christ is risen, this is what it all means. In this culture of disposal, where anything or anyone who is not useful is cast out into the street, where anything that is not useful is thrown away, that stone - Jesus - is thrown aside, and he is the source of life. We too, who are but pebbles on the ground, in the midst of this land of suffering, tragedy, with faith in the Risen Christ, have a sense of this even in the midst of so much suffering. We have a sense of looking out, a sense of saying: Look, there is no wall, there is a horizon, there is life, there is joy, there is a cross with all this ambivalence. Look out, look ahead, don't remain closed in on yourself. You little pebble, you have a sense, a purpose in life because you are a pebble that has been taken from the stone, the stone that was thrown aside by the wickedness of sin.
What does the Church say to us today, faced by such a tragedy? This, simply this. The stone that was rejected does not truly lead to rejection. The pebbles that we believe, the pebbles that are joined to that stone have not been thrown away, they have meaning and the Church repeats this sentiment from the depths of her heart: Christ is risen.
Let us think about this, every one of us, let us think, about the problems we face today, the disease that we have seen or that some of us have experienced; let us think about the wars, the human tragedies and, simply, with humble voices, without any flowers, one voice at a time, before God, before ourselves, let us say: I don't know how this is going, but I am sure that Christ is risen and I can bet on it.
Brothers and sisters, this is what I wanted to share with you. Let us go back home today repeating in our hearts: Christ is risen.
The celebration began with the ritual of Resurrexit and involved the faithful of Rome as well as pilgrims who had come to Rome from various parts of the world to celebrate the Easter season.
Following the proclamation of the gospel, the Holy Father shared an unscripted homily, the transcription of which is printed below.
Homily of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
for the Solemn Mass of Easter Day
Today the Church repeats, chants, cries out: Jesus is risen! But how can this be? Peter, John, the women went to the Tomb and it was empty, He was not there. They went with closed and saddened hearts, hearts filled with the sadness of defeat: the Master, their Teacher, the one who loved them so much and who was justified, was dead. And no one has ever returned from death.
This is a defeat, this is a path of defeat, the road to the tomb. But the Angel said to them: He is not here, he is risen. This is the first proclamation: He is risen. And then came the confusion, the closed hearts, the apparitions. But the disciples remained closed in, locked in the Cenacle all day long, because they were afraid that the same fate that Jesus met could also be theirs.
The Church never stops responding to our defeats, our closed and timid hearts: Stop it, the Lord is risen. But if the Lord is risen, how could these things happen? How can there be so much suffering, disease, human trafficking, mistreatment of people, war, destruction, mutilation, revenge, hatred? Where is the Lord? Yesterday, I called a young boy who has a serious illness, a cultured young man, an engineer. As we spoke, in order to give him some hope, I said: There is no explanation for what is happening to you. Look to Jesus on the Cross, God did that to this Son, and there is no other explanation. And he replied: Yes, but he asked his Son and the Son said yes. He never asked me whether I wanted this. This is moving, none of us is ever asked: Are you happy with what is happening in the world? Are you willing to carry the cross? And the cross continues, and faith in Jesus diminishes. Today, the Church continues to say: Stop, Jesus is risen. And this is not an imaginary thing, the Resurrection of Christ is not a party with lots of flowers. That's beautiful, but that's not all there is, there is more; it is the mystery of the stone that is rolled away that becomes the foundation of our existence.
Christ is risen, this is what it all means. In this culture of disposal, where anything or anyone who is not useful is cast out into the street, where anything that is not useful is thrown away, that stone - Jesus - is thrown aside, and he is the source of life. We too, who are but pebbles on the ground, in the midst of this land of suffering, tragedy, with faith in the Risen Christ, have a sense of this even in the midst of so much suffering. We have a sense of looking out, a sense of saying: Look, there is no wall, there is a horizon, there is life, there is joy, there is a cross with all this ambivalence. Look out, look ahead, don't remain closed in on yourself. You little pebble, you have a sense, a purpose in life because you are a pebble that has been taken from the stone, the stone that was thrown aside by the wickedness of sin.
What does the Church say to us today, faced by such a tragedy? This, simply this. The stone that was rejected does not truly lead to rejection. The pebbles that we believe, the pebbles that are joined to that stone have not been thrown away, they have meaning and the Church repeats this sentiment from the depths of her heart: Christ is risen.
Let us think about this, every one of us, let us think, about the problems we face today, the disease that we have seen or that some of us have experienced; let us think about the wars, the human tragedies and, simply, with humble voices, without any flowers, one voice at a time, before God, before ourselves, let us say: I don't know how this is going, but I am sure that Christ is risen and I can bet on it.
Brothers and sisters, this is what I wanted to share with you. Let us go back home today repeating in our hearts: Christ is risen.
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