Don’t be afraid of God's surprises: Pope at Easter Vigil Mass
March 31, 2013: Pope Francis ushered in the Easter season for the world's 1.2 billion
Catholics with a Vigil Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica Saturday night. Christendom’s
largest church was in the dark for the start of the service to signify the darkness
in Jesus' tomb before his resurrection from the dead three days after his crucifixion.
Some 10,000 faithful lit candles as Pope Francis, the former Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio
of Argentina, walked up the main aisle, and then the basilica's lights were turned
on. After the scripture readings the pope observed an Easter Vigil tradition baptizing
4 new adult members of the Catholic Church. The new Catholics from Italy, Albania,
Russia and the United States, also received the sacrament of Confirmation and Holy
Eucharist at the Mass.
Celebrating his first Easter as Pope, the 76-year-old
Jesuit Pontiff, known for his humble and frugal ways, wore white vestments and delivered
a simple homily urging those who have strayed from the faith to allow God back into
their lives. He recounted the Bible story of how Jesus' disciples, including the
women, found his tomb empty a day after his death and were surprised and confused.
“Our daily problems and worries can wrap us up in ourselves, in sadness and bitterness,
and that is where death is,'' he said. In his gentle persuasive way the Pope urged
his listeners not to be "afraid of God's surprises," never to lose confidence during
the trials and tribulations of daily life, and, if they have strayed, to let God back
into their lives. "Let the risen Jesus enter your life, welcome him as a friend,
with trust: he is life! If up till now you have kept him at a distance, step forward.
He will receive you with open arms," he said, speaking in Italian. "If you have been
indifferent, take a risk: you won't be disappointed. If following him seems difficult,
don't be afraid, trust him, be confident that he is close to you, he is with you and
he will give you the peace you are looking for and the strength to live as he would
have you do," he said.
Below we publish the definitive text of Pope’ Francis’
Easter Vigil Homily, March 30th, 2013:
Dear Brothers and Sisters, In the Gospel
of this radiant night of the Easter Vigil, we first meet the women who go the tomb
of Jesus with spices to anoint his body (cf. Lk 24:1-3). They go to perform an act
of compassion, a traditional act of affection and love for a dear departed person,
just as we would. They had followed Jesus, they had listened to his words, they had
felt understood by him in their dignity and they had accompanied him to the very end,
to Calvary and to the moment when he was taken down from the cross. We can imagine
their feelings as they make their way to the tomb: a certain sadness, sorrow that
Jesus had left them, he had died, his life had come to an end. Life would now go on
as before. Yet the women continued to feel love, the love for Jesus which now led
them to his tomb. But at this point, something completely new and unexpected happens,
something which upsets their hearts and their plans, something which will upset their
whole life: they see the stone removed from before the tomb, they draw near and they
do not find the Lord’s body. It is an event which leaves them perplexed, hesitant,
full of questions: “What happened?”, “What is the meaning of all this?” (cf. Lk 24:4).
Doesn’t the same thing also happen to us when something completely new occurs in our
everyday life? We stop short, we don’t understand, we don’t know what to do. Newness
often makes us fearful, including the newness which God brings us, the newness which
God asks of us. We are like the Apostles in the Gospel: often we would prefer to hold
on to our own security, to stand in front of a tomb, to think about someone who has
died, someone who ultimately lives on only as a memory, like the great historical
figures from the past. We are afraid of God’s surprises; we are afraid of God’s surprises!
He always surprises us!
Dear brothers and sisters, let us not be closed to
the newness that God wants to bring into our lives! Are we often weary, disheartened
and sad? Do we feel weighed down by our sins? Do we think that we won’t be able to
cope? Let us not close our hearts, let us not lose confidence, let us never give up:
there are no situations which God cannot change, there is no sin which he cannot forgive
if only we open ourselves to him.
2. But let us return to the Gospel, to the
women, and take one step further. They find the tomb empty, the body of Jesus is not
there, something new has happened, but all this still doesn’t tell them anything certain:
it raises questions; it leaves them confused, without offering an answer. And suddenly
there are two men in dazzling clothes who say: “Why do you look for the living among
the dead? He is not here; but has risen” (Lk 24:5-6). What was a simple act, done
surely out of love – going to the tomb – has now turned into an event, a truly life-changing
event. Nothing remains as it was before, not only in the lives of those women, but
also in our own lives and in the history of mankind. Jesus is not dead, he has risen,
he is alive! He does not simply return to life; rather, he is life itself, because
he is the Son of God, the living God (cf. Num 14:21-28; Deut 5:26; Josh 3:10). Jesus
no longer belongs to the past, but lives in the present and is projected towards the
future; he is the everlasting “today” of God. This is how the newness of God appears
to the women, the disciples and all of us: as victory over sin, evil and death, over
everything that crushes life and makes it seem less human. And this is a message meant
for me and for you, dear sister, dear brother. How often does Love have to tell us:
Why do you look for the living among the dead? Our daily problems and worries can
wrap us up in ourselves, in sadness and bitterness... and that is where death is.
That is not the place to look for the One who is alive! Let the risen Jesus enter
your life, welcome him as a friend, with trust: he is life! If up till now you have
kept him at a distance, step forward. He will receive you with open arms. If you have
been indifferent, take a risk: you won’t be disappointed. If following him seems difficult,
don’t be afraid, trust him, be confident that he is close to you, he is with you and
he will give you the peace you are looking for and the strength to live as he would
have you do.
3. There is one last little element that I would like to emphasize
in the Gospel for this Easter Vigil. The women encounter the newness of God. Jesus
has risen, he is alive! But faced with empty tomb and the two men in brilliant clothes,
their first reaction is one of fear: “they were terrified and bowed their faced to
the ground”, Saint Luke tells us – they didn’t even have courage to look. But when
they hear the message of the Resurrection, they accept it in faith. And the two men
in dazzling clothes tell them something of crucial importance: “Remember what he told
you when he was still in Galilee… And they remembered his words” (Lk 24:6,8). They
are asked to remember their encounter with Jesus, to remember his words, his actions,
his life; and it is precisely this loving remembrance of their experience with the
Master that enables the women to master their fear and to bring the message of the
Resurrection to the Apostles and all the others (cf. Lk 24:9). To remember what God
has done and continues to do for me, for us, to remember the road we have travelled;
this is what opens our hearts to hope for the future. May we learn to remember everything
that God has done in our lives.
On this radiant night, let us invoke the intercession
of the Virgin Mary, who treasured all these events in her heart (cf. Lk 2:19,51) and
ask the Lord to give us a share in his Resurrection. May he open us to the newness
that transforms. May he make us men and women capable of remembering all that he has
done in our own lives and in the history of our world. May he help us to feel his
presence as the one who is alive and at work in our midst. And may he teach us each
day not to look among the dead for the Living One. Amen.