Pope Francis participates in the Easter Vigil in St. Peter’s Basilica and his homily focuses on how the women of the gospel help to glimpse the “first rays of the dawn of the life of God, rising in the darkness of our world” and us teach, see, hear, and hear proclaim the Lord’s Passover from death to life.
By Thaddeus Jones
Pope Francis attended the Easter Vigil in St. Peter’s Basilica on the evening of Holy Saturday, which was filled with 5,500 pilgrims. This festival is the most solemn and noblest of all high festivals.
Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, Dean of the College of Cardinals, presided over the celebration while Pope Francis preached his homily and baptized seven catechumens. The pope has been suffering from knee pain in recent months, which he also mentioned when speaking to journalists after his recent pastoral trip to Malta.
Proximity to Ukraine
Present at the celebration were members of a small delegation from Ukraine, made up of representatives of the country’s local government and parliament, with whom the Pope met just before the start of the liturgy.
The delegation also included the mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, now in exile. The Pope gave him a special greeting during the celebration.
“In this darkness that you live, Mr. Mayor, MPs, the thick darkness of war, of cruelty, we all pray, pray with you and for you tonight. We pray for all the suffering. All we can do is give you our company, our prayer, and tell you, “Courage! We’ll be with you!” And to tell you the biggest thing we’re celebrating today: Christòs voskrés! Christ is risen!”
delivers his sermon seated, the Pope recalled how many writers have evoked the beauty of starry nights, while wartime nights are marked by streams of light heralding death.
From bewilderment to joy
As he meditated on that Easter Vigil, he encouraged all to see the hopeful light of dawn as experienced by the gospel women who discovered Jesus’ empty tomb. They show us “the first rays of the dawn of the life of God, rising in the darkness of our world.”
Easter Vigil in St. Peter’s Basilica
The Pope recalled how the women who went early in the morning to anoint Jesus’ body were terrified to find it empty, while they encountered two figures in iridescent robes who told them that Jesus had risen.
“They saw, they heard, they proclaimed” – we too can gain three aspects of their experience when we remember the Lord’s Passover from death to life.
The women saw
The first news of the resurrection is “a sign to ponder,” the Pope noted, because it totally shattered expectations and was an amazing and surprising hope.
Sometimes radically good news “finds no place in our hearts,” the Pope added, and like the women of the Gospel, we can respond at first with doubt and, above all, fear, as the Gospel narrative describes their reaction.
Easter Vigil in St. Peter’s Basilica
We can sometimes look at life and reality with a dejected perspective, the pope continued, and even write off the future, believing things will never change or get better and bury “the joy of life.”
Yet the Easter hope we proclaim today is a call from the Lord to see life differently and to take the leap to truly believe that “fear, pain, and death will not have the last word over us.”
While death can fill us with fear and sadness, he said, we must remember that “the Lord is risen!”
“Let us raise our eyes, lift the veil of sadness and sorrow from our eyes, and open our hearts to the hope that God brings!”
The women listened
I remember the two men in dazzling robes speaking to women and saying, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, he is risen”, said the Pope, we do well to hear and repeat her words “He is not here!”.
This reaction can also apply to us when we think we have understood all about God and allow our own ideas and perspectives to contain him, or we seek the Lord only in times of need and forget him for the rest of our daily lives , or when we neglect the Lord who is present in our brothers and sisters who need our help.
Easter Vigil in St. Peter’s Basilica
The Pope added that we must rid ourselves of dying ways of thinking and behaving in which we can become prisoners of the past, lacking the courage to allow ourselves to be forgiven by God, to choose Jesus and his love.
We must accept and encounter the living God who wants to change us and our world.
“But the Lord is risen! Let’s not linger among the graves, but run to find him, the living one! Nor should we be afraid to look for him in the faces of our brothers and sisters, in the stories of those who hope and dream, in the pain of those we suffer: God is there!”
The women announced
The last verb the Pope underscored is how the women proclaimed the joy of the Resurrection and “opened their hearts to the extraordinary message of God’s victory over evil and death.”
This joy was not only a joyful consolation, but spurred them on to produce missionary disciples who would “bring the gospel of the risen Christ to all.”
The Pope said after the women saw and heard it, they were overcome with a drive and excitement to share this good news, even when people thought they were crazy or didn’t want to believe it.
Easter Vigil in St. Peter’s Basilica
joy in the gospel
The Pope expressed his desire for a Church that, in the same way, with the same fervor, can proclaim the joy of the Gospel, to which all Christians are called to “live the Risen Christ and share the experience with others” and who joy it brings.
Easter Vigil Baptism of Catechumens
“Let us raise Jesus alive from all the tombs in which we sealed him… Let us bring him into our daily lives: through gestures of peace in these days marked by the horrors of war, through acts of reconciliation in the midst broken relationships, acts of compassion towards those in need, acts of justice amidst situations of inequality and truth amidst lies. And above all by works of love and brotherhood.”
Hope has a name: the name of Jesus
In conclusion, Pope Francis recalled how Jesus “entered the tomb of our sins” and “borne the weight of our burdens” to bring us back to life.
“Let’s celebrate Easter with Christ! Experienced! Even today he walks in our midst, transforming us and setting us free… For with Jesus, the risen Lord, no night will last forever; and even in the darkest night the morning star shines on.”
Full video of the Easter Vigil with Pope Francis