Christ Heals Scourges of Humanity

(23 Mar 08 - RV) “Dear Christian brothers and sisters in every part of the world, dear men and women whose spirit is sincerely open to the truth, let no heart be closed to the omnipotence of this redeeming love! Jesus Christ died and rose for all; he is our hope – true hope for every human being”.

That was Pope Benedict’s message this Easter Sunday to the city of Rome and to the world.
His Urbi et Orbi Message was delivered, not from the central loggia of St Peter’s Basilica, as is tradition, but from the high altar of St Peter’s square where he led mass celebrating the discovery of the Good News, that Christ has risen.
The reason for this break in tradition was the thundering rain which poured down upon a sea of umbrellas, protecting the thousands who withstood the unseasonable weather to hear the Pope’s appeal for peace and end to violence.
“How often relations between individuals, between groups and between peoples are marked not by love but by selfishness, injustice, hatred and violence!” decried the Pope. “These, ” he said are the scourges of humanity, open and festering in every corner of the planet, although they are often ignored and sometimes deliberately concealed; wounds that torture the souls and bodies of countless of our brothers and sisters”.
Pope Benedict turned the attention of the crowds and the millions watching the rain swept ceremony via television, first to Africa,He asked “how can we fail to remember certain African regions, such as Dafur and Somalia”. He then spoke of “the tormented Middle East, especially the Holy Land, Iraq, Lebanon, and finally Tibet”, all of whom he encouraged to seek solutions that will safeguard peace and the common good.
In his message he concluded : “humanity needs Christ: in him, our hope, “we have been saved”
Then, before imparting his apostolic blessing the Pope thanked the congregation for their perseverance through thunder and rain, urging them not to allow the Easter joy be damped by the wet-weather, which he described as a blessing from heaven for this earth:
He then went on to wish the Christians across the world a Happy and peaceful Easter in over 60 languages, beginning with Italian, and including, not name but a few, Arabic, Chinese, Burmese, Hindi, Irish and concluding of course in Latin:
The Regina Coeli, which will accompany us for the Easter Season then sounded the end of Mass:
Indeed the Regina Ceoli hymn also marked the Vigil Mass celebrated in the Vatican Basilica last night by Pope Benedict XVI.
In his homily, he described Jesus' love for mankind in terms of a light which has vanquished the darkness of sin and death.
The moving rite opened with the "blessing of the fire" and the lighting of the Easter Candle in the Basilica's atrium before tens of thousands of faithful gathered in St Peter's Square on a cold, wet night.
The Paschal candle was then carried into the darkened Basilica, an act symbolizing the "Light" of Christ's resurrection illuminating the world.
During the ceremony Pope Benedict also administered the sacraments of baptism, confirmation and First Communion to seven converts - five women and two men - including nationals from Cameroon, China, the United States and Peru.
Reflecting on the meaning of Baptism in his homily Pope Benedict said “We no longer stand alongside or in opposition to one another,". "Thus faith is a force for peace and reconciliation in the world: distances between people are overcome, in the Lord we have become close."
He said “Believers – the baptized – are never truly cut off from one another. Continents, cultures, social structures or even historical distances may separate us. But when we meet, we know one another on the basis of the same Lord, the same faith, the same hope, the same love, which form us. Then we experience that the foundation of our lives is the same. We experience that in our inmost depths we are anchored in the same identity, on the basis of which all our outward differences, however great they may be, become secondary. Believers are never totally cut off from one another. We are in communion because of our deepest identity: Christ within us.
EMcC: Pope Benedict concluded, meditating on Baptism and the symbols of the Easter vigil Liturgy, Light and Fire, that: The Lord has granted us the light of truth. This light is also fire, a powerful force coming from God, a force that does not destroy, but seeks to transform our hearts, so that we truly become men of God, and so that his peace can become active in this world.