Easter Vigil: Surprises

In the darkening hours of Holy Saturday, the Church gathers to keep vigil as we commemorate the fulfillment of the Lord's promise that he would triumph over death.  At this time, we ourselves take time to ponder the truth of this mystery.

Miracles in our midst

This is a night of miracles.  We who are gathered here are witnesses to great and wonderful things, miraculous happenings, and each of these miracles is a moment of grace and blessing for us as we witness our God at work.

Tonight, we have recalled some of the greatest moments in our history: the moment at which our God created us and provided everything that we would need to survive and to thrive (cf Gn 1:1-2:2); the promise that God made to Abraham as a reward for his faith and trust (cf Gn 22:1-18); the journey of our ancestors in faith as they made their way through the sea and into the promised land (cf Ex 14:15-15:20); the promise that no matter what we may have done to tarnish our relationship with God, He is always willing to sprinkle clean water upon us (cf Ez 36:16-28); and the greatest moment of all: the discovery of the empty tomb which was the summit of our journey in faith (cf Mk 16:1-8).

What the women encountered when they arrived at the tomb surprised them and filled them with both fear and great joy.  Even today, the miracle of the Resurrection fills our hearts with surprise and with joy ... and this is something wonderful!

Human reason easily understands many things, but human reason is powerless to comprehend the miracle that we are celebrating tonight.  The words of the angel ring out across time to speak to our hearts as they did to the women at the tomb: Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus ... who was crucified.  He has been raised; he is not here (Mk 16:6).

We might be tempted to think that the joy the women encountered that morning was a gift especially reserved for them and not for anyone else, but Jesus rose once for all of us.  This is the reason why we celebrate Easter every year.  The joy with which the angel surprised the women that morning is also offered to us today, for we have all been baptized into Christ Jesus (Rom 6:3) and therefore, just as Christ was raised from the dead, ... so we too can look forward to the day when we will walk in the newness of life (Rom 6:4).

This is the good news that we celebrate tonight, the wonderful, joyous news of Easter that we have to share: Jesus is not here (Mk 16:6).  He has been raised from the dead.  Alleluia!

Des miracles parmi nous

C'est une nuit de miracles. Nous qui sommes rassemblés ici, nous sommes témoins de choses merveilleuses, d'événements miraculeux, et chacun de ces miracles est un moment de grâce et de bénédiction pour nous lorsque nous sommes témoins de notre Dieu qui est à l’oeuvre.

Ce soir, nous avons rappelé certains des plus grands moments de notre histoire: le moment où notre Dieu nous a créés et nous a fourni tout ce dont nous aurions besoin pour survivre et prospérer (cf. Gn 1,1-2-2); la promesse que Dieu a faite à Abraham en récompense de sa foi et de sa confiance (cf. Gn 22,1-18); le chemin de nos ancêtres dans la foi, alors qu'ils traversaient la mer et s'engageaient dans la terre promise (cf Ex 14,15-15,20); la promesse que peu importe ce que nous aurions pu faire pour ternir notre relation avec Dieu, il est toujours prêt à répandre de l'eau pure sur nous (cf. Ez 36,16-28); et le plus grand moment de tous: la découverte du tombeau vide qui était le sommet de notre voyage dans la foi (cf Mc 16,1-8).

Ce que les femmes ont rencontré lorsqu'elles sont arrivées au tombeau les a surprises et les a remplies de peur et de joie. Même aujourd'hui, le miracle de la résurrection remplit nos coeurs de surprise ainsi que de joie ... et c'est quelque chose de merveilleux!

Le raisonnement humain comprend facilement beaucoup de choses, mais le raisonnement humain est impuissant à comprendre le miracle que nous célébrons ce soir. Les paroles de l'ange résonnent à travers le temps pour parler à nos coeurs comme elles l'ont fait aux femmes au tombeau: Ne soyez pas effrayées!  Vous cherchez Jésus ... le Crucifié. Il est ressuscité; il n'est pas ici (Mc 16,6).

Nous pourrions être tentés de penser que la joie que les femmes ont rencontrée ce matin-là était un cadeau spécialement réservé pour elles et pour personne d'autre, mais Jésus est ressuscité une fois pour toutes. C'est la raison pour laquelle nous célébrons le temps de Pâques chaque année. La joie avec laquelle l'ange a surpris les femmes ce matin-là nous est aussi offerte aujourd'hui, car par le baptême, nous avons été unis au Christ Jésus (Rom 6,3) et par conséquent, nous avons été mis au tombeau avec lui ... pour que nous menions une vie nouvelle (Rom 6,4).

Voici donc la bonne nouvelle que nous célébrons ce soir, la merveilleuse et joyeuse nouvelle de Pâques que nous devons partager: Jésus est ressuscité; il n’est pas ici (Mc 16, 6). Alléluia!

Easter Vigil at the Vatican

At 8:30 this evening (2:30pm EDT), Pope Francis presided in the Vatican Basilica at the solemn Easter Vigil of this holy night.

The Rite began in the atrium of Saint Peter's Basilica with the blessing of the fire and the preparation of the Easter candle.

The procession moved through the church toward the altar, led by the lit Easter candle and was immediately followed by the singing of the Exultet. This was followed by the Liturgy of the Word and the Baptismal Liturgy during which the Pope administered the sacraments of Christian initiation to 8 neophytes from Albania, Italy, Nigeria, Peru and the United States of America.

Homily of His Holiness, Pope Francis

for the Easter Vigil Mass in Saint Peter's Basilica

We began this celebration outside, plunged in the darkness of the night and the cold. We felt an oppressive silence at the death of the Lord, a silence with which each of us can identify, a silence that penetrates to the depths of the heart of every disciple, who stands wordless before the cross.

These are the hours when the disciple stands speechless in pain at the death of Jesus. What words can be spoken at such a moment? The disciple keeps silent in the awareness of his or her own reactions during those crucial hours in the Lord’s life. Before the injustice that condemned the Master, his disciples were silent. Before the calumnies and the false testimony that the Master endured, his disciples said nothing. During the trying, painful hours of the Passion, his disciples dramatically experienced their inability to put their lives on the line to speak out on behalf of the Master. What is more, not only did they not acknowledge him: they hid, they escaped, they kept silent (cf Jn 18:25-27).

It is the silent night of the disciples who remained numb, paralyzed and uncertain of what to do amid so many painful and disheartening situations. It is also that of today’s disciples, speechless in the face of situations we cannot control, that make us feel and, even worse, believe that nothing can be done to reverse all the injustices that our brothers and sisters are experiencing in their flesh.

It is the silent night of those disciples who are disoriented because they are plunged in a crushing routine that robs memory, silences hope and leads to thinking that this is the way things have always been done. Those disciples who, overwhelmed, have nothing to say and end up considering normal and unexceptional the words of Caiaphas: Can you not see that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed? (Jn 11:50).

Amid our silence, our overpowering silence, the stones begin to cry out (cf Lk 19:40) and to clear the way for the greatest message that history has ever heard: He is not here, for he has been raised (Mt 28:6). The stone before the tomb cried out and proclaimed the opening of a new way for all. Creation itself was the first to echo the triumph of life over all that had attempted to silence and stifle the joy of the Gospel. The stone before the tomb was the first to leap up and in its own way intone a song of praise and wonder, of joy and hope, in which all of us are invited to join.

Yesterday, we joined the women in contemplating the one who was pierced (cf Jn 19:36; cf Zech 12:10). Today, with them, we are invited to contemplate the empty tomb and to hear the words of the angel: Do not be afraid ... for he has been raised (Mt 28:5-6). Those words should affect our deepest convictions and certainties, the ways we judge and deal with the events of our daily lives, especially the ways we relate to others. The empty tomb should challenge us and rally our spirits. It should make us think, but above all it should encourage us to trust and believe that God happens in every situation and every person, and that his light can shine in the least expected and most hidden corners of our lives. He rose from the dead, from that place where nobody waits for anything, and now he waits for us – as he did the women – to enable us to share in his saving work. On this basis and with this strength, we Christians place our lives and our energy, our intelligence, our affections and our will, at the service of discovering, and above all creating, paths of dignity.

He is not here ... he is risen! This is the message that sustains our hope and turns it into concrete gestures of charity. How greatly we need to let our frailty be anointed by this experience! How greatly we need to let our faith be revived! How greatly we need our myopic horizons to be challenged and renewed by this message! Christ is risen, and with him he makes our hope and creativity rise, so that we can face our present problems in the knowledge that we are not alone.

To celebrate Easter is to believe once more that God constantly breaks into our personal histories, challenging our conventions, those fixed ways of thinking and acting that end up paralyzing us. To celebrate Easter is to allow Jesus to triumph over the craven fear that so often assails us and tries to bury every kind of hope.

The stone before the tomb shared in this, the women of the Gospel shared in this, and now the invitation is addressed once more to you and to me. An invitation to break out of our routines and to renew our lives, our decisions and our existence. An invitation that must be directed to where we stand, what we are doing and what we are, with the power ratio that is ours. Do we want to share in this message of life or do we prefer simply to continue standing speechless before events as they happen?

He is not here ... he is raised! And he is waiting for you in Galilee. He invites you to go back to the time and place of your first love and he says to you: Do not be afraid, follow me.

Greetings for Passover

Professor Roberto Di Segni, Chief Rabbi of Rome
meeting Pope Francis, 31 August 2017

On Thursday (29 March 2018), Pope Francis sent cordial and fraternal greetings to the Jewish Community of Rome.

His greetings were expressed in a message sent to the Chief Rabbi of Rome, Ricardo Di Segni.

May the Almighty bless and accompany the journey of the beloved Jewish People.  May the Most High allow us to grow ever more in friendship and to be witnesses of peace and harmony, he wrote.

The Holy Father concluded with a request for prayers and with the greeting: Chag sameach - Happy Feast (in Hebrew).  The Rabbi also sent Easter greetings to Pope Francis.  This year, the dates of Passover and Easter coincide.

Via Crucis in the Roman Colosseum

At 9:15pm local time (3:15pm EDT), the Holy Father, Pope Francis presided over the pious exercise of the Via Crucis (the Way of the Cross) which took place inside the Colosseum and was transmitted by television to various countries throughout the world.

The texts of the meditations and prayers for this year's Via Crucis were prepared by a group of young students at one of Rome's high schools.  The project was coordinated by Professor Andrea Monda.

Prayer recited by the Holy Father, Pope Francis

after the conclusion of the Via Crucis

Lord Jesus, our gaze is turned to you, full of shame, repentance and hope.

In the face of your supreme love, shame pervades us for leaving you alone to suffer for our sins:

• the shame to have escaped before the test even though you have said thousands of times: "even if everyone leaves you, I will never leave you";
• the shame of having chosen Barabbas and not you, the power and not you, the appearance and not you, the god of money and not you, the mundanity and not the eternity;
• the shame for having tempted you with your mouth and heart, every time we have been in front of a trial, telling you: if you are the messiah, save yourself and we will believe!;
• shame because so many people, and even some of your ministers, let themselves be deceived by ambition and vain glory, losing their worthiness and their first love;
• shame because our generations are leaving young people a world fractured by divisions and wars; a world devoured by selfishness where the young, the small, the sick, the elderly are marginalized;
• the shame of having lost the shame;

Lord Jesus, always give us the grace of holy shame!

Our gaze is also full of a repentance that pleads your mercy before your eloquent silence: repentance that sprouts from the certainty that only you can save us from evil, only you can heal us from our leprosy of hatred, selfishness, pride, greed, revenge, greed, idolatry, only you can embrace us by giving back the filial dignity and rejoice for our return home, to life;

• the repentance that springs from feeling our smallness, our nothingness, our vanity and that lets itself be caressed by your sweet and powerful invitation to conversion;
• the repentance of David who finds his only strength in you from the abyss of his misery;
• the repentance born of our shame, born of the certainty that our heart will always remain restless until you find yourself and in you its only source of fullness and quietness;
• the repentance of Peter who, when he met your eyes, wept bitterly for having denied you before men.

Lord Jesus, always give us the grace of holy repentance!

In front of your supreme majesty, the spark of hope lights up in the darkness of our despair because we know that your only measure of love is to love us without measure;

• the hope that your message continues to inspire, even today, so many people and peoples that only good can defeat evil and wickedness, only forgiveness can bring down resentment and revenge, only the fraternal embrace can disperse the hostility and fear of the other;
• hope because your sacrifice continues, still today, to emanate the scent of divine love that caresses the hearts of so many young people who continue to consecrate their lives becoming living examples of charity and gratuity in our world devoured by the logic of profit and easy money;
• the hope that so many missionaries continue, even today, to challenge the sleeping consciousness of humanity, risking their lives to serve you in the poor, in the rejected, in the immigrants, in the unseen, in the exploited, in the hungry and in prisoners;
• the hope that your Church, holy and made up of sinners, continues, even today, despite all the attempts to discredit it, to be a light that enlightens, encourages, lifts and bears witness to your unlimited love for humanity, a model of altruism, an ark of salvation and a source of certainty and truth;
• the hope because from your cross, fruit of the greed and cowardice of so many doctors of the Law and hypocrites, the Resurrection has burst forth, turning the darkness of the tomb into the splendour of the dawn of Sunday without sunset, teaching us that your love is our hope.

Lord Jesus, always give us the grace of holy hope!

Help us, Son of man, to strip away the arrogance of the thief on your left and that of the short-sighted and the corrupt who have seen in you an opportunity to exploit; a condemned man to criticize, a loser to be mocked, and another opportunity to hurl guilt onto others, even onto God.

Instead, help us, Son of man, to identify ourselves with the good thief who looked at you with eyes of shame, of repentance and hope, who, with the eyes of faith, saw in your apparent defeat the divine victory and so knelt before your mercy and with honesty has robbed paradise! Amen!

Good Friday: An act of faith

To properly understand the significance of Good Friday, we need to see Christ's self-giving sacrifice not as an end but rather as a beginning.  He suffered and died so that we might live with him.

What’s happening?

On Good Friday, the Christian community gathers, not because we are mourning, but as an act of remembrance and of faith.  The Lord Jesus suffered and died a horrible death, but then he rose from the dead, and therefore he dies no more.  Death has no more power over him.

Today, we have heard to the spell-binding words of the prophet Isaiah, and we have listened attentively to Saint John’s account of Jesus’ passion.  Of all the gospels, John’s account emphasizes the freedom with which Jesus gave his life out of love for us.

Let us pray today for all people.  Jesus gave his life on a cross for all of us.  In a few moments, we will have an opportunity to venerate his glorious cross, a sign of our Saviour’s infinite love for us.

Our gathering here today is not about remembering a death, but rather about remembering the One who triumphed over death and now lives forever in heaven.

Qu’est-ce qui se passe?

Le Vendredi Saint, la communauté chrétienne se rassemble.  Nous ne sommes pas ici à cause du deuil, mais pour nous souvenir et exprimer un acte de foi.  Le Seigneur Jésus Christ a souffert terriblement et il est mort, mais il est ressuscité et il ne meure plus.  La mort n’a aucun pouvoir sur lui.

Aujourd'hui, nous avons entendu les paroles du prophète Isaīe, et nous avons écouté attentivement le récit de la passion de Jésus raconté par saint Jean. De tous les évangiles, le récit de Jean souligne la liberté avec laquelle Jésus a donné sa vie par amour pour nous.

Prions aujourd'hui pour tout le monde. Jésus a donné sa vie sur une croix pour nous tous. Dans quelques instants, nous aurons l'occasion de vénérer sa croix glorieuse, un signe de l'amour infini de notre Sauveur pour nous.

Notre présence ici aujourd'hui ne consiste pas à nous souvenir d'une mort, mais plutôt à nous souvenir de Celui qui a triomphé de la mort et qui vit maintenant pour toujours dans le ciel.

The Passion of the Lord at the Vatican

At 5:00pm local time today (11:00am EDT), the Holy Father, Pope Francis presided over the celebration of the Passion of the Lord inside the Vatican Basilica.

During the Liturgy of the Word, John's account of the Passion was read aloud and then the Preacher of the Papal Household, Father Raniero Cantalamessa, OFM Cap. shared his reflection.

The Liturgy of the Passion continued with the Prayers of the Faithful and the adoration of the Holy Cross, and concluded with the distribution of Holy Communion.

He who saw it has borne witness

Homily of Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, OFM, Cap.

Preacher of the Papal Household

Commemoration of the Death of the Lord

When they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. He who saw it has borne witness - his testimony is true, and he knows that he tells the truth - that you also may believe. (Jn 19:33-35).

No one could convince us that this solemn attestation does not correspond to historical truth, that the one who says he was there and saw it was really not there and did not see it. What is at stake, in this case, is the honesty of the author. On Calvary, at the foot of the cross, was the mother of Jesus and next to her, the disciple whom Jesus loved. We have the testimony of an eye-witness!

He saw not only what was happening as everyone looked on, but in the light of the Holy Spirit after Passover he also saw the meaning of what happened: in this moment the true Lamb of God was sacrificed and the meaning of the ancient Passover was fulfilled; Christ on the cross was the new temple of God from whose side, as the prophet Ezekiel predicted (Ez 47:1ff), flowed the water of life; the spirit that he gave up at the moment of death began the new creation, just as in the beginning the Spirit of God, hovering over the waters, had transformed the chaos in the cosmos. John understood the meaning of Jesus’ last words: It is fulfilled (cf Jn 19:30).

But why, we can ask ourselves, this unbounded concentration on the significance of the cross of Christ? Why is the Crucified One omnipresent in our churches, on altars, and in every place frequented by Christians? Someone has suggested, as a key to understanding the Christian mystery, that God reveals himself sub contraria specie, under a form contrary to what he is in reality: he reveals his power in weakness, his wisdom in foolishness, his riches in poverty.

This key, however, does not apply to the cross. On the cross God reveals himself sub propria specie, he reveals himself as he really is, in his most intimate and truest reality. God is love, John writes (1 Jn 4:10), oblative love, a love that consists in self-giving, and only on the cross does God’s infinite capacity for self-gift manifest the length to which it will go. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end (Jn 13:1); “God so loved the world that he gave - meaning to death! -his only Son (Jn 3:16); the Son of God . . . loved me and gave himself for me (Gal 2:20).

In this year in which the Church will hold a Synod on Young People and aims to have them as the centre of pastoral concern, the presence on Calvary of the disciple that Jesus loved holds a special message. We have every reason to believe that John joined Jesus when he was still quite young. It was a real falling in love. Everything else suddenly took second place. It was a personal, existential encounter. Whereas at the centre of Paul’s thinking is the work of Jesus — his paschal mystery of death and resurrection — at the centre of John’s thinking is the being, the person, of Jesus. This is the source of all the I am statements with divine resonance that punctuate his Gospel: I am the way, the truth, and the life; I am the door; simply I am.

John was almost certainly one of John the Baptist’s two disciples who, when Jesus appeared on the scene, followed him. When they asked, Rabbi, where are you staying? Jesus answered, Come and see. They came and saw where he was staying; and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour (cf Jn 1:35-39). That hour decided the course of John’s life, and he never forgot it.

It is appropriate during this year that we make an effort to discover together with young people what Christ expects from them, what they can offer the Church and society. The most important thing, however, is something else: it is to help young people understand what Jesus has to offer them. John discovered it while staying with him: fullness of joy and abundant life. Let us do this in such a way that, in all the speeches about young people and to young people, the heartfelt invitation of the Holy Father in Evangelii gaudium will resonate as an undercurrent:

I invite all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting him encounter them; I ask all of you to do this unfailingly each day. No one should think that this invitation is not meant for him or her, since no one is excluded from the joy brought by the Lord” (EG, 3).

To encounter Christ personally is still possible today because he is risen; he is a living person, not a personage. Everything is possible after this personal encounter; without it nothing will be stable or enduring.

Besides the example of his life, the evangelist John has also left a written message to young people. In his First Letter we read these moving words from an elder to the young people in the churches he founded:

I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one. Do not love the world or the things in the world 
(1 Jn 2:14-15).

The world that we must not love and to which we should not be conformed as we know, is not the world created and loved by God or the people in the world whom we must always go out to meet, especially the poor and those at the lowest level of society. Blending in with this world of suffering and marginalization is, paradoxically, the best way of separating ourselves from the world because it means going in the direction from which the world flees as much as it can. It means separating ourselves from the very principle that rules the world, self-centredness.

No, the world we must not love is something else; it is the world as it has become under the dominion of Satan and sin, the spirit of the air, as Saint Paul calls it (cf Eph 2:1-2). It plays a decisive role in public opinion, and today it is literally a spirit of the air because it is spreads itself in infinite ways electronically through airwaves. One famous exegete writes that this spirit is so intense and powerful that no individual can escape it. It serves as a norm and is taken for granted. To act, think or speak against this spirit is regarded as non-sensical or even as wrong and criminal. It is ‘in’ this spirit that men encounter the world and affairs, which means they accept the world as this spirit presents it to them (Heinrich Schlier, Principalities and Powers in the New Testament (New York: Herder and Herder, 1961), pp. 31-32).

This is what we call an adaptation to the spirit of the age, conformity. One great believing poet from the last century, T. S. Eliot, has written three verses that say more than whole books: In a world of fugitives / The person taking the opposite direction / Will appear to run away (T. S. Eliot, Family Reunion, Part II, sc. 2, in The Complete Plays of T. S. Eliot (New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014), p.110).

Dear young Christians, if you will allow an old man like John to address you directly, I would exhort you: be those who take the opposite direction! Have the courage to go against the stream! The opposite direction for us is not a place but a person; it is Jesus, our friend and redeemer.

A task and a mission are particularly entrusted to you: to rescue human love from the tragic drift in which it had ended up: love that is no longer a gift of self but only the possession—often violent and tyrannical—of another. God revealed himself on the cross as agape, the love that gives itself.

But agape is never dissociated from eros, from a love that welcomes, that pursues, that desires, and that finds joy in being loved in return. God not only exercises charity in loving us, he also desires us; throughout the Bible he reveals himself as a loving and jealous spouse. His love is also erotic in the noble sense of that word. This is what Benedict XVI explained in his encyclical Deus caritas est:

Eros and agape — ascending love and descending love — can never be completely separated. . . . Biblical faith does not set up a parallel universe, or one opposed to that primordial human phenomenon which is love, but rather accepts the whole man; it intervenes in his search for love in order to purify it and to reveal new dimensions of it (DCE, 7-8).

It is not a question of renouncing the joys of love, attraction, and eros but of knowing how to unite eros and agape in the desire for another, the ability to give oneself to the other, recalling what Saint Paul refers to as a saying of Jesus: It is more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20:35).

This ability, however, does not come about in one day. It is necessary to prepare yourselves to make a total gift of self to another creature in marriage, or to God in consecrated life, beginning by making a gift of your time, of your smile, and of this period of your lives in the family, in the parish, and in volunteer work. This is what so many of you are already quietly doing.

On the cross Jesus not only gave us an example of self-giving love carried to the extreme; he also merited the grace for us to be able to bring it to pass, to some extent, in our lives. The water and blood that flowed from his side comes to us today in the sacraments of the Church, in God’s word, and even in just looking at the Crucified One in faith. One last thing John saw prophetically at the cross: men and women of every time and place who were turning their gaze to the one who was pieced and who wept tears of repentance and of consolation (cf Jn 19:37 and Zac 12:10). Let us join them in the liturgical actions that will follow.
(Original text in Italian; English Translation by Marsha Daigle Williamson)

Holy Thursday: Washing feet

Tonight, we began the annual observance of the Easter Triduum.  The Mass of the Lord's Supper is the first of a three-part liturgy that is experienced across three days: including Good Friday and Holy Saturday.

The Joy of the Feast

We have begun the celebration of the Easter Triduum.  After having spent six weeks preparing our hearts through the disciplines of prayer, fasting and almsgiving, we have finally arrived at this moment, which is actually one celebration spread over three days.  In the coming days, many of us will celebrate by gathering with family members and friends around a table where we will share a meal, tell stories and give thanks to God.

The Book of Exodus recounts the story of another time in history when God’s people were gathering to share a meal with family and friends.  The details of the meal are quite explicit (cf Ex 12:3-11) and the story that is told has been repeated to all those who have partaken in the Passover meal throughout the centuries that have come and gone since that time (cf Ex 12:14).  The joy that we experience as we gather with family and friends around the banquet table on Easter Sunday is foreshadowed in the banquet table that is set for the Eucharist.  At this table, we are made aware of the historical significance of the meal we share as well as the invitation that is given to us today to go out into the world, ready to share the joy that we encounter in this place.

Saint Paul speaks of the Passover meal that Jesus shared with his disciples.  They had most probably gathered to celebrate the Passover on other occasions too.  Even in our time, the Passover table is a place where families and friends gather to remember and to give thanks.  However, on that particular night, Jesus did something different.  On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took a loaf of bread, broke it and said: ‘This is my Body that is for you.  Do this in remembrance of me’.  He also took a cup after supper, gave it to them and said: This cup is the new covenant in my Blood.  Do this ... in remembrance of me (1 Cor 11:23-25).

These surprising moments happened at different moments during the liturgy of the Passover Seder meal.  Whereas the disciples were very familiar with the rest of the meal, these two moments would have caught them by surprise because Jesus changed the words, and re-interpreted the meaning of the actions that accompanied them.  The element of surprise helps to keep things fresh in our minds.  Whereas the rest of the details of the meal are not recounted in Saint Paul’s account, perhaps because they were not noteworthy, these two moments were different and worth recounting, but Jesus wasn’t done yet.  He had another surprise in store for the disciples.

Saint John tells us that at a certain point during the meal, presumably after the rituals of the Passover Seder had been completed, and as the rest of the meal was being served, Jesus got up from the table, took off his outer robe ... poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet (Jn 13:4-5).  This action too would have surprised them because as their Teacher, it was not Jesus’ place to wash the feet of his disciples.  This is the reason why Peter asked: Lord, are you going to wash my feet? (Jn 13:6).  We should always pay attention to the moments in life when we are surprised, especially the moments when God surprises us; these are the moments of grace and occasions when Jesus teaches us some valuable lessons.

In the case of Holy Thursday, the act of washing the disciples’ feet was meant to show them (and us) that we should consider it a gift from God to be called upon to be of service to others.  As Jesus himself said: If I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet (Jn 13:14).  In a few moments, we will re-enact that moment that Jesus shared with his disciples in the Upper Room, when he washed their feet.  As we do, ask yourselves a few questions: Where have I encountered Jesus?  How have my feet been washed by others?  How is Jesus inviting me to wash the feet of those I meet?  Can I accept his invitation?  Am I willing to do what he asks of me, to recognize the precious gift that he offers: the gift of joy that is the fruit of loving service?

La joie du festin

Nous avons commencé la célébration du Triduum Pascal. Après avoir passé six semaines à préparer nos cœurs par la prière, le jeûne et l'aumône, nous sommes enfin arrivés à ce moment qui est en fait une seule célébration étalée sur trois jours.   Au cours des prochains jours, beaucoup d'entre nous célébreront la Resurrection du Seigneur avec des membres de leurs familles et des amis autour d'une table en partageant un repas pendant qu’on racontera des histoires et qu’on renda grâce à Dieu.

Le livre de l'Exode raconte l'histoire d'une autre époque où le peuple de Dieu se réunissait pour partager un repas avec sa famille et ses amis. Les détails du repas sont assez précis (cf Ex 12,3-11) et l'histoire racontée a été transmise à tous ceux qui ont participé au repas de la Pâque à travers les siècles jusqu’à nos jours (cf Ex 12,14). La joie que nous éprouvons lorsque nous nous réunissons avec la famille et les amis autour de la table le dimanche de Pâques est annoncée dans la table de banquet qui est fixée pour l'Eucharistie. À cette table, nous sommes sensibilisés à la signification historique du repas que nous partageons ainsi qu'à l'invitation qui nous est faite aujourd'hui de sortir dans le monde, prêts à partager la joie que nous rencontrons dans ce lieu.

Saint Paul parle du repas de la Pâque que Jésus a partagé avec ses disciples. Ils s'étaient probablement rassemblés pour célébrer la Pâque à d'autres occasions aussi. Même à notre époque, la table de la Pâque est un endroit où les familles et les amis se réunissent pour se souvenir et pour remercier le Seigneur. Cependant, cette nuit-là, Jésus a fait quelque chose de différent. La nuit où il a été livré, le Seigneur Jésus prit du pain, puis ayant rendu grâce, il le rompit et dit: 'Ceci est mon corps qui est pour vous. Faites cela en mémoire de moi.  Après le souper, il fit de même avec la coupe en disant: Cette coupe est la nouvelle Alliance en mon sang ... faites cela en mémoire de moi (1 Co 11,23-25).

Ces gestes surprenants se sont produits à différents moments de la liturgie du repas du Seder de la Pâque. Alors que les disciples étaient très familiers avec le reste du repas, ces deux moments les ont pris par surprise parce que Jésus a changé les paroles, et a réinterprété le sens des actions qui les accompagnaient. L'élément de surprise aide à garder les choses fraîches dans nos esprits. Alors que le reste des détails du repas n’est pas raconté dans le récit de saint Paul, peut-être parce qu'ils avaient peu d’importance, ces deux moments étaient différents et méritaient d'être racontés, mais Jésus n'avait pas encore fini. Il avait une autre surprise en réserve pour les disciples.

Saint Jean nous dit qu'à un moment donné pendant le repas, vraisemblablement après la fin des rituels du Seder de la Pâque, et pendant que le reste du repas était servi, Jésus se lève de table, dépose son vêtement ... verse de l’eau dans un basin et se mit à laver les pieds des disciples (Jn 13,4-5).  Cette action les a aussi surpris parce que, en tant que leur Maître, on ne s’attendait pas à ce que Jésus lave les pieds de ses disciples. Voici la raison pour laquelle Pierre a demandé: C’est toi, Seigneur, qui me lave les pieds? (Jn 13,6). Nous devrions toujours prêter attention aux moments de la vie où nous sommes surpris, surtout les moments où Dieu nous surprend; ce sont les moments de grâce et d'occasions où Jésus nous enseigne des leçons précieuses.

Pour ce qui ait du Jeudi Saint, le but de laver les pieds des disciples était de leur montrer que nous devrions considérer cela comme un don de Dieu à être appelé à servir les autres. Comme Jésus lui-même l'a dit: Si ... moi, le Seigneur et le Maître, je vous ai lavé les pieds, vous aussi, vous devez vous lavez les pieds les uns aux autres (Jn 13,14).  Dans quelques instants, nous allons reconstituer ce moment que Jésus a partagé avec ses disciples dans le Cénacle, quand il leur a lavé les pieds. Comme nous le faisons, posez-vous quelques questions: Où ai-je rencontré Jésus? Comment mes pieds ont-ils été lavés par les autres? Comment Jésus m'invite-t-il à laver les pieds de ceux que je rencontre? Puis-j’accepter son invitation? Suis-je prêt à faire ce qu'il me demande, à reconnaître le cadeau précieux qu'il offre: le don de la joie qui est le fruit du service motivé uniquement par amour pour mon prochain?

Mass of the Lord's Supper in Rome

At 3:45pm this afternoon (9:45am EDT), the Holy Father, Pope Francis departed from the Casa Santa Marta and travelled to the Regina Coeli Detention Centre in Rome.

Upon his arrival, at approximately 4:00pm, the Pope met with sick prisoners in the prison infirmary.  He then presided over the celebration of the Mass of the Lord's Supper, which begins the Easter Triduum and left a gift for the prison in the form of the altar upon which he had celebrated the liturgy.

During the Mass, the Holy Father washed the feet of twelve of the prisoners who are from seven countries: four of the prisoners are Italian, two are Filipino, two are Moroccan, one is Moldavian, one is Colombian, one is Nigerian and one is from Sierra Leone.  Eight of them are Catholics, two are Muslims, one is Orthodox and one is Buddhist.

Finally, before returning to the Vatican, the Pope met with some of the prisoners in Section VIII of the detention centre.

In memory of his visit to the Regina Coeli Prison in Rome today, Pope Francis offered as a gift the altar on which he celebrated the Mass of the Lord’s Supper. The bronze work of the sculptor Fiorenzo Bacci, from Porcia (Pordenone), sculpted for the occasion of his 50th wedding anniversary, was donated to the Holy Father at the General Audience of 12 November 2016 at the Vatican.  The sculpture depicts Jesus, the Good Shepherd who goes out to seek the lost sheep.

Homily of the Holy Father, Pope Francis

during the Mass of the Lord's Supper

Jesus concludes his speech by saying: I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you (Jn 13:15).  Wash feet.  In those days, feet would be washed by slaves: that was a task for slaves.  People would walk in the streets, and those streets were not paved, there were no cobblestones; in those days there was dust in the streets and people's feet got dirty.  At the entrance to the house, slaves would wash the feet of visitors.  This was the work of slaves, but this was a service: a service performed by slaves.  And Jesus wanted to perform this service, to give an example of how we should serve one another.

Once, when they were on a journey, two of his disciples who wanted to become important asked Jesus to give them important positions, one at his right and the other at his left (cf Mk 10:35-45).  And Jesus looked at them with love - Jesus always looked at people with love - and he said to them: You do not know what you are asking (Mk 10:38).  Jesus said that leaders of nations command, and offer service, and that is good (Mk 10:42).  Let us think about that time when there were kings, a time when there were cruel emperors who were served by slaves ... But among you - Jesus said - it should not be that way: those who are leaders should serve.  Your leaders should be your servant (cf Mk 10:43).  Jesus overturned historical and cultural attitudes of the time - even today - those who lead, in order to be good leaders, should seek to serve.  Many times I think - this must not be the time because many people are still alive and have opportunities to change their lives and we cannot judge, but we can think about history - if so may kings, emperors and heads of State had understood this teaching from Jesus and instead of commanding, instead of being cruel, instead of killing people, they had sought to serve, how many wars would never have been fought!  Service: truly, there are people who do not have this attitude within them: superb people, hateful people, people who perhaps would wish us harm; but we are called to serve them even more.  There are even people who suffer, who are ignored by society, at least for a period of time, and Jesus goes there and says to them: You are important to me.  Jesus comes to serve us, and the sign that Jesus is serving us today at the Regina Coeli prison is that he has chosen twelve of you, like the twelve apostles, to have your feet washed.  Jesus takes a risk with each one of us.  Pay attention to this: Jesus' name is Jesus, not Pontius Pilate.  Jesus doesn't wash his hands, he only knows how to take risks!  Consider this beautiful image (sculpted into the altar): Jesus is kneeling among the thorns, risking the possibility of being wounded in order to rescue the lost sheep.

Today, I who am a sinner just like you, but who represent Jesus, I am an ambassador of Jesus.  Today, when I kneel in front of each one of you, think to yourselves: Jesus took risks in this man, a sinner, to come to me and to tell me that he loves me.  This is service, this is Jesus: he never abandons us: he never grows tired of forgiving us.  He loves all of us.  See how Jesus takes risks!

And with these sentiments, let us continue with the ceremony which is symbolic.  Before giving us his body and his blood, Jesus takes risks for each one of us, and he risks serving us because he loves us so much.

Before the exchange of peace, the Holy Father said:

And now, all of us - I am sure that all of us - want to be at peace with everyone else.  But in our hearts there are often conflicting emotions.  It is easy to be at peace with those who we love and with those who do good things for us; but it is not easy to be at peace with those who have wronged us, those who don't love us, with those who are our enemies.  In silence, just for a moment, let's all think about those who love us and about those who don't love us, and every one of us, let's think about those who don't love us and even those upon whom we ourselves might want to seek revenge.  Let's ask the Lord, in silence, to grant us the grace to offer everyone - good and bad - a sign of peace.

At the conclusion of the Mass, the Director of the prison and one of the prisoners offered words of gratitude for the Pope's visit.  Then the Holy Father offered the following greetings:

You spoke about a new way of seeing things: renewing your vision ... This is good, because at my age, for example, cataracts can appear, and people don't always see reality very well: next year I think they will have to do the surgery on me.  The same is true for our souls: the work of living, fatigue, mistakes, delusions obscure our way of seeing things, the way our souls perceive things.  For this reason, what you have said is true: take advantage of this opportunity to renew your vision.  And as I said in Saint Peter's Square (during yesterday's General Audience), in many places, even in my own homeland, when we hear the bells ringing to announce the Lord's resurrection, mothers and grandmothers take their children to the sink and teach them to wash their eyes so that they will be able to see with hope in the risen Christ.  Don't ever grow tired of renewing your vision, of having cataract operations on your soul, every day.  Always try to renew your vision.  This is a beautiful effort.

You all know the image of the wine bottle that is half filled: if I look at the half that is empty, life is terrible, terrible, but if I look at the half that is full, there is still some wine to drink.  There is a way of looking at life that opens us up to hope, words that you have spoken, and you too (pointing to the director); and you repeated them several times.  We cannot conceive of a home like this without hope.  Here, you need to learn and you need to find ways of sowing seeds of hope: there is no just punishment - right or just! - without being open to hope.  Any punishment that is not open to hope is not Christian, it is not human!

There are difficulties in life, some things are terrible, there is sadness - we can think about those who are dear to us, our mothers, our fathers, our wives, our husbands, our children ... such sadness is terrible.  But we should never give up: no, no.  I am here, but in order to be reintegrated into society, I need to be renewed.  This is the hope that is within each of you.  Sow seeds of hope ... always, always.  This is your task: help each other to sow hope and to prepare for reintegration into society; it will be good for all of you.  Always.  Every punishment must be open to the horizon of hope.  For this reason, capital punishment is neither human nor Christian.  Every punishment should be open to hope, to the possibility for reintegration into society, and also to provide a good example for others.

The water of resurrection, a new way of seeing, hope: these are my hopes for you.  I know that you have worked very hard to prepare for this visit, you have even painted the walls.  Thank you.  For me, this is a sign of good will and of welcome, and I am very grateful.  I am close to you, I am praying for you, and you too, pray for me, don't forget: the water that gives us new sight, and hope.

Chrism Mass celebrated in Rome

At 9:30am this morning (3:30am EDT), the Holy Father presided over the celebration of the Chrism Mass for the Diocese of Rome.  The Mass of Chrism is celebrated in most Cathedrals throughout the world on this day, however it is permitted for a Diocesan Bishop to move this celebration to another day if he judges it to be pastorally appropriate.

The Mass of Chrism for the Diocese of Rome was concelebrated by the Holy Father along with Cardinals, Bishops and Priests (both Diocesan and Religious priests) who are present in Rome.

During the Eucharistic celebration, the priests renewed the promises they made at the moment of their priestly Ordination; then the Pope blessed the Oil of the Infirm, the Oil of Catechumens and the Sacred Chrism - the oils that are used for the administration of the sacraments during the coming year.

Homily of the Holy Father, Pope Francis

for the Mass of Chrism

Dear brother priests of the Diocese of Rome and other dioceses throughout the world!

When I was reading the texts of today’s liturgy, I kept thinking of the passage from Deuteronomy: For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? (Deut 4:7). The closeness of God ... our apostolic closeness.

In the reading from the prophet Isaiah, we contemplate the Servant, anointed and sent among his people, close to the poor, the sick, the prisoners … and the Spirit who is upon him, who strengthens and accompanies him on his journey.

In Psalm 88, we see how the closeness of God, who led King David by the hand when he was young, and sustained him as he grew old, takes on the name of fidelity: closeness maintained over time is called fidelity.

The Book of Revelation brings us close to the Lord who always comes – erchómenos – in person, always. The words every eye will see him, even those who pierced him makes us realize that the wounds of the Risen Lord are always visible. The Lord always comes to us, if we choose to draw near, as neighbours, to the flesh of all those who suffer, especially children.

At the heart of today’s Gospel, we see the Lord through the eyes of his own people, which were fixed on him (Lk 4:20). Jesus stood up to read in his synagogue in Nazareth. He was given the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled it until he found, near the end, the passage about the Servant. He read it aloud: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed and sent me... (Is 61:1). And he concluded by challenging his hearers to recognize the closeness contained in those words: Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing (Lk 4:21).

Jesus finds the passage and reads it with the proficiency of a scribe. He could have been a scribe or a doctor of the law, but he wanted to be an evangelizer, a street preacher, the bearer of joyful news for his people, the preacher whose feet are beautiful, as Isaiah says. The Preacher is always close.

This is God’s great choice: the Lord chose to be close to his people. Thirty years of hidden life! Only then did he begin his preaching. Here we see the pedagogy of the Incarnation, a pedagogy of inculturation, not only in foreign cultures but also in our own parishes, in the new culture of young people …

Closeness is more than the name of a specific virtue; it is an attitude that engages the whole person, our way of relating, our way of being attentive both to ourselves and to others ... When people say of a priest, he is close to us, they usually mean two things. The first is that he is always there (as opposed to never being there: in that case, they always begin by saying, Father, I know you are very busy ...). The other is that he has a word for everyone. He talks to everybody, they say, with adults and children alike, with the poor, with those who do not believe ... Priests who are close, available, priests who are there for people, who talk to everyone ... street priests.

And one of those who learned from Jesus how to be a street preacher was Philip. In the Acts of the Apostles we read that he went about evangelizing in all the cities and that they were filled with joy (cf Acts 8:4.5-8). Philip was one of those whom the Spirit could seize at any moment and make him go out to evangelize, moving from place to place, someone capable of even baptizing people of good faith, like the court official of the Queen of the Ethiopians, and doing it right there at the roadside (cf Acts 8:5.36-40).

Closeness, dear brothers, is crucial for an evangelizer because it is a key attitude in the Gospel (the Lord uses it to describe his Kingdom). We can be certain that closeness is the key to mercy, for mercy would not be mercy unless, like a Good Samaritan, it finds ways to shorten distances. But I also think we need to realize even more that closeness is also the key to truth; not just the key to mercy, but the key to truth. Can distances really be shortened where truth is concerned? Yes, they can. Because truth is not only the definition of situations and things from a certain distance, by abstract and logical reasoning. It is more than that. Truth is also fidelity (émeth). It makes you name people with their real name, as the Lord names them, before categorizing them or defining their situation. There is a distasteful habit, is there not, of following a culture of the adjective: this is so, this is such and such, this is like … No! This is a child of God. Then come the virtues or defects, but first the faithful truth of the person and not the adjective regarded as the substance.

We must be careful not to fall into the temptation of making idols of certain abstract truths. They can be comfortable idols, always within easy reach; they offer a certain prestige and power and are difficult to discern. Because the truth-idol imitates, it dresses itself up in the words of the Gospel, but does not let those words touch the heart. Much worse, it distances ordinary people from the healing closeness of the word and of the sacraments of Jesus.

Here, let us turn to Mary, Mother of priests. We can call upon her as Our Lady of Closeness. As a true mother, she walks at our side, she shares our struggles and she constantly surrounds us with God’s love, in such a way that no one feels left out (Evangelii Gaudium, 286). Our Mother is not only close when she sets out with haste to serve, which is one means of closeness, but also by her way of expressing herself (EG, 288). At the right moment in Cana, the tone with which she says to the servants, Do whatever he tells you, will make those words the maternal model of all ecclesial language. But to say those words as she does, we must not only ask her for the grace to do so, but also to be present wherever the important things are concocted: the important things of each heart, each family, each culture. Only through this kind of closeness – concocted in the same way meals are prepared and cooked in a kitchen – can we discern that wine that is missing, and what is the best wine that the Lord wants to provide.

I suggest that you meditate on three areas of priestly closeness where the words, Do everything Jesus tells you, need to be heard – in a thousand different ways but with the same motherly tone – in the hearts of all those with whom we speak. Those words are spiritual accompaniment, confession and preaching.

Closeness in spiritual conversation. Let us reflect on this by considering the encounter of the Lord with the Samaritan woman. The Lord teaches her to discern first how to worship, in spirit and in truth. Then, he gently helps her to acknowledge her sin, without offending her. And finally, the Lord infects her with his missionary spirit and goes with her to evangelize her village. The Lord gives us a model of spiritual conversation; he knows how to bring the sin of the Samaritan woman to light without its overshadowing her prayer of adoration or casting doubt on her missionary vocation.

Closeness in confession. Let us reflect on this by considering the passage of the woman caught in adultery. It is clear that here closeness is everything, because the truths of Jesus always approach and can be spoken face to face. Looking the other in the eye, like the Lord, who, after kneeling next to the adulteress about to be stoned, stood up and said to her, Nor do I condemn you (Jn 8:11). This is not to go against the law. We too can add, Go and sin no more, not with the legalistic tone of truth as definition – the tone of those who feel that that they have to determine the parameters of divine mercy. On the contrary, those words need to be spoken with the tone of truth as fidelity, to enable the sinner to look ahead and not behind. The right tone of the words sin no more is seen in the confessor who speaks them and is willing to repeat them seventy times seven.

Finally, closeness in preaching. Let us reflect on this by thinking of those who are far away, and listening to Peter’s first sermon, which is part of the Pentecost event. Peter declares that the word is for all that are far off (Acts 2:39), and he preaches in such a way that they were cut to the heart by the kerygma, which led them to ask: What shall we do? (Acts 2:37). A question, as we said, we must always raise and answer in a Marian and ecclesial tone. The homily is the touchstone for judging a pastor’s closeness and ability to communicate to his people (Evangelii Gaudium, 135). In the homily, we can see how close we have been to God in prayer and how close we are to our people in their daily lives.

The good news becomes present when these two forms of closeness nourish and support one another. If you feel far from God, please draw nearer to your people, who will heal you from the ideologies that cool your fervour. The little ones will teach you to look at Jesus in a different way. For in their eyes, the person of Jesus is attractive, his good example has moral authority, his teachings are helpful for the way we live our lives. And if you feel far from people, approach the Lord and his word: in the Gospel, Jesus will teach you his way of looking at people, and how precious in his eyes is every individual for whom he shed his blood on the Cross. In closeness to God, the Word will become flesh in you and you will become a priest close to all flesh. Through your closeness to the people of God, their suffering flesh will speak to your heart and you will be moved to speak to God. You will once again become an intercessory priest.

A priest who is close to his people walks among them with the closeness and tenderness of a good shepherd; in shepherding them, he goes at times before them, at times remains in their midst and at other times walks behind them. Not only do people greatly appreciate such a priest; even more, they feel that there is something special about him: something they only feel in the presence of Jesus. That is why discerning our closeness to them is not simply one more thing to do. In it, we either make Jesus present in the life of humanity or let him remain on the level of ideas, letters on a page, incarnate at most in some good habit gradually becoming routine.

Dear brother priests, let us ask Mary, Our Lady of Closeness to bring us closer to one another, and, when we need to tell our people to do everything Jesus tells them, to speak with one tone of voice, so that in the diversity of our opinions, her maternal closeness may become present. For she is the one who, by her yes, has brought us close to Jesus forever.
(Original text in Italian; translation by Libreria Editrice Vaticana)

Easter greetings to his predecessor

This Holy Week was made a bit more joyous yesterday when Pope Francis paid a visit to his predecessor.

The Holy See Press Centre explained that the Argentine Pontiff visited the Pope Emeritus at his residence, the Mater Ecclesiae monastery which is located in the Vatican gardens on Tuesday afternoon to offer Easter greetings.

General Audience on the Easter Triduum

This morning's General Audience began at 9:30am (3:30am EDT) in Saint Peter's Square, where the Holy Father, Pope Francis met with groups of pilgrims and the faithful from Italy and from every corner of the world.

In his speech, the Pope added his meditation on the Easter Triduum (1 Cor 5:7-8).

After having summarized his catechesis in various languages, the Holy Father addressed particular greetings to each group of the faithful in attendance.

The General Audience concluded with the chanting of the Pater Noster and the Apostolic blessing.

Catechesis of the Holy Father, Pope Francis

for the General Audience

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!

Today, I want to focus and to meditate on the Pascal Triduum which will begin tomorrow, in order to deepen a little bit, what these most important days in the liturgical year represent for us believers.  I want to ask you a question: which feast is more important for our faith: Christmas or Easter?  Easter, because it is the feast of our salvation, the feast of God's love for us, the feast, the celebration of his death and Resurrection.  This is the reason why I want to reflect with you on this feast, on these days, which are Easter days, leading to the Lord's Resurrection.  These days constitute the celebrated memory of a great and unique mystery: the death and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.  The Triduum begins tomorrow with the Mass of the Lord's Supper and concludes with Vespers (Evening Prayer) on Easter Sunday.  Then there is Pasquetta (Easter Monday) another chance to celebrate this great feast: one more day.  But his is post-liturgical: it is a family celebration, a civil celebration.  It marks the fundamental stages of our faith and of our vocation in the world, and all Christians are called to live these three holy days - Thursday, Friday, Saturday; and Sunday - of course, but Saturday is the resurrection - the three holy days, so to speak, the matrix of their personal life, of their community life; just as our Jewish brothers lived them during the exile in Egypt.

These three days re-propose to the Christian people the great events of salvation at work in Christ, and thus they project him into the horizon of his future destiny and strengthen him in his commitment to bear witness in history.

On Easter morning, retracing the steps experienced throughout the Triduum, the Easter Sequence - a hymn or a kind of Psalm, solemnly announces the resurrection; it says: Christ, our hope, is risen and is going ahead of us to Galilee.  This is the great affirmation: Christ is risen.  For many people throughout the world, especially in Eastern Europe, people greet one another on Easter Sunday not by saying good morning or good evening, but rather with the words Christ is risen, in order to affirm the great Easter greeting.  Christ is risen.  In these words - Christ is risen - the Triduum culminates in emotional exultation.  These words are not only a proclamation of joy and hope, but also a call to responsibility and mission.  It does not end with a cake, an egg or with a party - even if these things are good because they are part of our family celebration - but it doesn't end there.  Our missionary journey begins there, with the proclamation: Christ is risen.  This proclamation, to which the Triduum leads, prepares us so that we can prepare to welcome it, and the focus of our faith is our hope, the nucleus is proclamation, it is - the difficult word, but a word that says it all - is kerygma, because the Church continually evangelizes and we in turn are all invited to evangelize.

Saint Paul summarizes the Easter event with this expression: Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed (1 Cor 5:7), like a lamb.  He was sacrificed.  Therefore - Saint Paul continues - old things have passed and are born again (2 Cor 5:15).  Reborn.  And for this reason, people were baptized on Easter Sunday.  This Saturday, in the evening, I will baptize here, in Saint Peter's, eight adults who will begin their Christian lives.  It all starts with them being reborn.  Saint Paul also explains: Christ was consigned to death because of our sins and he was raised for our justification (Rom 4:25).  Christ is the only one, the only one who justifies us, the only one in whom we are reborn again.  No one else.  For this reason, we don't have to pay anything, because justification - getting things right - is free.  This is the great thing about Jesus' love: he freely gives us life in order to make us all saints, to renew us, to forgive us.  And this is the nucleus - the heart - of the Easter Triduum.  In the Easter Triduum, the memory of this fundamental event becomes a celebration full of gratitude, and at the same time, it renews within each one of the baptized, the sense of their new condition, which the Apostle Paul expresses this way: If you are risen with Christ, seek the things that are above ... and not ... the things that are of the earth (Col 3:1-3).  Look upward, look to the horizons, broaden your horizons: this is our faith, this is our justification, this is the state of grace!  In fact, through Baptism, we are risen with Jesus and we are dead to things and to the logic of this world; we are reborn as new creatures: a reality that seeks to become concretely visible day after day.

A Christian who truly allows him- or herself to be washed by Christ, who truly allows him- or herself to be stripped of the old self in order to walk in a new life, all the while remaining a sinner - for we are all sinners - can no longer be corrupt, the justification of Jesus saves us from corruption; we are sinners but we are not corrupt; we can no longer live with the death of our souls, and neither can we be the cause of someone else's death. Here, I must tell you something sad and painful ... There are fake Christians: those who say that Jesus is risen, and that I was justified by Jesus, who say that they are living a new life, but they are living a corrupt life.  These fake Christians will never succeed.  I repeat: a Christian is a sinner - we are all sinners, I am a sinner - but we have the surety that when we ask the Lord to forgive us, he forgives us.  Someone who is corrupt might try to make us believe that he or she is an honourable person, but, in the end, in his or her heart there is something rotting.  Jesus gives us a new life.  A Christian cannot live with death in his or her soul, nor can he or she be the cause of death.  Let us think for a moment - we don't have to go far - let us think about our own homes, let us think about so-called mafia Christians.  Such Christians don't have anything: they say that they are Christians, but they carry death in their souls and they bring death to others.  Let us pray for them, that the Lord may touch their souls.  Our neighbours, especially those who are smallest and those who suffer most, become the concrete faces of those who share the love that Jesus has given to us.  The world becomes a space for our new risen life.  We are risen with Jesus: standing on our feet, holding our heads high, and we can share the humiliation of those who even today, like Jesus, are suffering, naked, in need, alone, dying, in order to become, thanks to Him and with Him, instruments of redemption and hope, signs of life and of resurrection.  In many countries - here in Italy and also in my own country - we have the habit that when we hear that it is Easter day, we hear the bells, the mothers the grandmothers who take their children to wash their ears with the water, with the water of life, as a sign that they can see the things of Jesus, new things.  This Easter, let us allow ourselves to wash our souls, to wash our eyes in love, so that we can see beautiful things, and do beautiful things.  And this would be marvellous!  This is what it truly means to live Jesus resurrection, after his death which was the price he paid to save all of us.

Dear brothers and sisters, let us prepare ourselves to live this Easter Triduum well - beginning tomorrow - in order to be more profoundly plunged into the mystery of Christ, who died and rose again for us.  May the Most Holy Virgin accompany us on this spiritual voyage, she who followed Jesus in his passion - She was there, watching, suffering ... she was present and united with him under his cross, but she was not ashamed of her son.  A mother is never ashamed of her son!  She was there, and she received in her maternal heart the immense joy of the resurrection.  May she obtain for us the grace of inwardly participating in the celebrations of these coming days, so that our hearts and our lives may truly be transformed.

In leaving these thoughts with you, I offer all of you my most sincere greetings for a happy and a holy Easter, together with your communities and those who are dear to you.

And may I suggest: on Easter morning, bring your children to the tap and have them wash their eyes.  It will be a sign of how they can see the Risen Jesus.



Summaries of the Holy Father's catechesis were then translated into various languages and His Holiness offered greetings to each group of the faithful in attendance.  To English-speaking pilgrims, he said:

I greet the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors taking part in today’s Audience, particularly those from England, Ireland, Finland, the Netherlands, Ghana, South Africa, Australia, Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines and the United States of America. I offer a special greeting to the delegates taking part in the Seminar organized by the Vatican Observatory in preparation for the forthcoming UNISPACE+50 Conference. May this Holy Week lead all of us to celebrate the resurrection of the Lord Jesus with hearts purified and renewed by the grace of the Holy Spirit. God bless you!

Clarifications about celebrating the Mother of the Church

Beginning this year, the Liturgical Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church will be celebrated on Monday following the Solemnity of Pentecost (21 May 2017).

His Eminence, Robert Cardinal Sarah
Prefect of the Congregation
for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments

Notification issued by the Congregation for Divine Worship

and the Discipline of the Sacraments

regarding the Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church

Following the inscription of the Obligatory Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church into the Roman Calendar, which must already be celebrated by everyone this year on the Monday after Pentecost, it seemed opportune to offer the following directions.

The rubric found in the Roman Missal after the formularies for the Mass of Pentecost, Where the Monday or Tuesday after Pentecost are days on which the faithful are obliged or accustomed to attend Mass, the Mass of Pentecost Sunday may be repeated, or a Mass of the Holy Spirit, may be said (Missale Romanum, p. 448), is still valid because it does not derogate precedence between liturgical days whose celebration are solely regulated by the Table of Liturgical Days (cf Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year and the Calendar, n. 59). Likewise, precedence is regulated by the norms on Votive Masses: Votive Masses are in principle forbidden on the days on which there occurs an Obligatory Memorial, on a weekday of Advent up to and including 16 December, on a weekday of Christmas Time from 2 January, or on a weekday of Easter Time after the Octave of Easter. However, for pastoral reasons, as determined by the rector of the church or the Priest Celebrant himself, an appropriately corresponding Votive Mass may be used in a celebration of Mass with the people (Missale Romanum, p. 1156; cf General Instruction of the Roman Missal, n. 376).

Nevertheless, all else being equal, the Obligatory Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church is to be preferred. The texts of the Memorial were attached to the Decree along with indications for the readings, which are to be held as proper because they illuminate the mystery of Spiritual Motherhood. In a future edition of the Ordo lectionum Missæ the rubric at n. 572 bis will expressly indicate that the readings are proper and, even though it is a Memorial, are to be adopted in place of the readings of the day, (cf Lectionary, General Introduction, n. 83).

In the case where this Memorial coincides with another Memorial the principles of the Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year and Calendar are to be followed (cf Table of Liturgical Days, n. 60). Given that the Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church is linked to Pentecost, as the Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary is similarly linked to the celebration of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, then, in the case where it coincides with another Memorial of a Saint or Blessed, and following the liturgical tradition of pre-eminence amongst persons, the Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary is to prevail.

From the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, 24 March 2018.

Robert Cardinal Sarah
Prefect

+ Arthur Roche
Archbishop Secretary

Greetings for the Police

At 11:30am today (5:30am EDT), in the Clementine Hall at the Vatican Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father, Pope Francis received in audience the leaders of the Inspectorate for Public Safety: the Italian Police who maintain law and order in and around Saint Peter's Square and during his visits in Rome and in other parts of Italy.

Speech of the Holy Father, Pope Francis

addressed to the Inspectorate for Public Safety

Mister Chief of Police,
Mister Prefect,
Dear Employees and Officers!

Welcome to this traditional appointment which gives me an occasion to demonstrate my gratitude for the services tat you provide to the Apostolic See and to Vatican City.  I thank the Chief of Police for the courteous words that were addressed to me in your name.  And I greet each one of you, and wish you sincere greetings for Easter enlightened by faith and enlivened by the most beautiful and truest values.

This Inspectorate of the Public Security offers a precious collaboration in the pastoral ministry of the Bishop of Rome.  I am grateful for your vigilant presence and for the assistance that you provide during the celebrations of liturgical rites and numerous gatherings that involve the Basilica of Saint Peter and the entire grounds of Vatican City.  Moreover, the Pope and his collaborators know that we can count on your cooperation during our pastoral visits to parishes and other civic and ecclesial institutions in the city of Rome, as well as other pastoral visits in other parts of Italy.

Thanks to your discrete and effective work of surveillance, pilgrims who come from every corner of the world to visit the tomb of the apostle Peter are able to encounter the tranquility of this important faith experience.  You carry out this daily task by nourishing yourselves with civic and humanitarian ideals proper to the members of the Italian State Police.  However, your contact with the events of considerable religious and cultural importance as well as with priests, religious men and women and lay people enable to you to collaborate in the universal mission of the Successor of Peter, providing additional motives for your commitment and dedication.  In fact, the special conditions in which you carry out your responsibilities enable you to reinforce your professional dedication, drawing life and energy from the perennial truths of the gospel.  Bearing witness in this way through your daily activities to the human and spiritual values that are proper to Christianity, you also contribute to the mission of the Church.

The Vatican is a destination not only for Christians from all corners of the world, but also for representatives of various religions, for Heads of State and for highly-ranking ecclesial and civil personalities who come to meet the Pontiff, or his collaborators in the various Dicasteries of the Holy See.  Thanks to your work, these meetings allow for dialogue and visits testify to a culture of faith, which is maintained in Vatican City, and take place in a climate of serenity and order.

Renewing my appreciation for your cooperation, I entrust each one of you to the protection of the Mother of God.  May she support you and accept your prayers, presenting them to her Son, and may she be close to your families as well.  Your families are very important to all of you.  I offer a special thought for your families, especially for your children and, while I ask you to pray for me, I wish you Happy Easter and with all my heart, I impart my Apostolic benediction to all of you and to those who are dear to you.

The Holy Father then added the following unscripted words:

I wish to tell you something else.  I have been saddened on a few occasions when I go out and see that you are there at work.  I think to myself: These people should be at home, with their families ... But you are at work, caring for other people, for me ... I don't know how to thank you.  You are caretakers, all of you: those of you who are there, those who are watching out for us, those courageous people on their motorcycles ... you will be able to find work after you retire: you can go and work in the circus!, because you have marvellous balance!  The word that always comes to my mind is this: those people sacrifice themselves in order to care for the Pope, to take care of people, to make sure that there isn't a crazy person who will do something, or a massacre that would bring such suffering and even ruin to families.  And that word: to keep has come to my mind so many times.  I thought about the Custodian of Jesus, and this is the reason why this Easter, I want to present you with this image of Saint Joseph, the Custodian of Jesus, so that you can carry it with you and decide for yourselves where you will place it.  This is a gift from my heart.  But though it, I also want to express my gratitude.  I want to give it to your representative, Doctor Maiorino, who is always so involved in these activities of caring for others.