Pope: Easter faith spurs us to seek the risen Lord with hope and joy
Celebrating the joy of Easter during the morning Mass in Saint Peter’s Square, Pope Francis in his homily calls on us to hasten to seek the risen Lord, like the first disciples, and to renew the gift of hope within us, sharing with those we meet along our life journey.
Flowers from Dutch florists in Saint Peter’s Square for Easter Sunday (Vatican Media)
By Thaddeus Jones
Presiding over the Easter morning Mass on behalf of Pope Francis, Italian Cardinal Angelo Comastri welcomed the over fifty thousand faithful gathered in a flower-filled Saint Peter’s Square. The flowers are provided by Dutch florists and this year marks the 39th anniversary of doing so. Tens of thousands of flowers of every sort adorned Saint Peter’s Square and Basilica in an intricate, colourful layout.
Cardinal Comastri, Archpriest emeritus of Saint Peter’s Basilica and Vicar General emeritus of Vatican City, led the liturgy in the Square and read the homily of Pope Francis prepared for the occasion.
Haste in looking for the Lord
Recalling how Mary Magdalene, Peter, and John all made haste in discovering and witnessing the empty tomb, Pope Francis said this “running” to see what happened may reflect not only a concern the Lord’s body had been taken way, but a desire, “the yearning of the heart, the inner attitude of those who set out to search for Jesus.” The Lord has risen from the dead and “we must look for him elsewhere.”
Actively seeking the risen Christ
The message of Easter is precisely that “Christ is risen, he is alive!” the Pope emphasized, “no longer a prisoner of death.” This requires that we “take action”, he said, setting out to find the Lord in our lives, in our brothers and sisters, in our everyday experiences – “everywhere except in the tomb.”
“Christ is present everywhere, he dwells among us, he hides himself and reveals himself even today in the sisters and brothers we meet along the way, in the most ordinary and unpredictable situations of our lives. He is alive and is with us always, shedding the tears of those who suffer and adding to the beauty of life through the small acts of love carried out by each of us.”
Welcoming the Lord into our lives
Easter faith opens the door to encountering the risen Lord and welcoming him into our lives, the Pope continued. This reality of Easter “spurs us to action”, he emphasized, “to run like Mary Magdalene and the disciples” to seek and meet the Lord, to have eyes that “see beyond” and to experience Jesus as “the one who lives” and is present with us today, going before us, helping us, surprising us.
“Like Mary Magdalene, every day we can experience losing the Lord, but every day we can also run to look for him again, with the certainty that he will allow himself to be found and will fill us with the light of his resurrection.”
Experiencing life’s greatest hope
“Brothers and sisters, this is the greatest hope of our life: we can live this poor, fragile and wounded existence clinging to Christ, because he has conquered death, he conquers our darkness and he will conquer the shadows of the world, to make us live with him in joy, forever.”
Renewing and sharing hope
“The Jubilee invites us to renew the gift of hope within us, to surrender our sufferings and our concerns to hope, to share it with those whom we meet along our journey and to entrust to hope the future of our lives and the destiny of the human family.”
The Pope in his homily said we should not settle for the fleeting things of this world or give into sadness, but instead “we must run, filled with joy” in meeting the Lord and rediscovering “the inestimable grace of being his friends
“Sisters, brothers, in the wonder of the Easter faith, carrying in our hearts every expectation of peace and liberation, we can say: with You, O Lord, everything is new. With you, everything begins again.”
