Pope at Easter Vigil: ‘With Jesus no tomb will suppress the joy of life’

By Lisa Zengarini

Pope Francis presided over the traditional Easter Holy Night vigil in St. Peter's Basilica on Saturday evening. The celebration began at the entrance to the Basilica with the evocative rite of the blessing of fire followed by the candlelight procession while Lumen Christi was sung and the lights of the Basilica were lit in all their brilliance. The celebration included the baptism and confirmation of eight catechumens from Italy (4), South Korea (2), Japan (1) and Albania (1).

“Who will roll away the stone from the tomb?

In his homily, Pope Francis reflected on the Gospel account of the women visiting the empty tomb of Jesus, drawing attention to two crucial moments from that event.

At first the afflicted women are troubled by a question: “Who will roll away the stone from the tomb?” “.

“This stone, an insurmountable obstacle,” declared the Pope, “symbolized what women felt in their hearts. It was the end of their hopes, now shattered by the dark and painful mystery that put an end to their dreams.

The tombstones we encounter in our lives

Sometimes in life, the Pope observed, we too experience this feeling of being overwhelmed by sadness and despair: “We encounter these tombstones in the void left by the death of our loved ones, in the failures and fears which prevent us from accomplishing the good that we want to do”, but also “in all forms of egocentrism which stifle our impulses of generosity and sincere love, in the rubber walls of selfishness and indifference that hinders us in the effort to build fairer and more humane cities. and societies, in all our aspirations for peace which are shattered by the cruel hatred and brutality of war.

The victory of life over death

Yet, Pope Francis noted, the same women who carried this darkness in their hearts tell us something quite extraordinary: when they looked up, they saw that this heavy stone had already been rolled away, revealing the power of God: “the victory of life over death”. , the triumph of light over darkness, the rebirth of hope amid the ruins of failure.

Let us raise our eyes to Jesus, our Passover

Pope Francis therefore invited the faithful to “lift their eyes” to him: “If we let Jesus take us by the hand,” he declared, “no experience of failure or sorrow, however painful it may be, will have the last word on the meaning. and the destiny of our lives.

By welcoming Jesus, “our Easter”, the “God of life”, into our lives and saying “yes” to him, the Pope added: “no stone will block the path to our hearts, no tomb will take away the joy in life, no failure will condemn us to despair.

“Let us raise our eyes to him, the risen Lord,” he concluded, “and let us move forward with the certainty that, against the dark background of our disappointed hopes and our deaths, the eternal life that he came to bring is still present now. among us. »