Pope Benedict ushers in Easter

(April 12, 2009) Pope Benedict XVI Pope Benedict ushered in the Easter season with a Vigil Mass Saturday night in St. Peter’s Basilica. The German-born pontiff, marking the 4th Easter season of his pontificate, began the service in the atrium of a darkened St Peter's Basilica where he blessed the fire and engraved the Greek letters Alpha and Omega on a large Paschal or Easter candle. The candle symbolizes Christ, and the Greek letters meaning He is the beginning and end of everything.
As the Pope carried the candle into Christendom’s largest church, a chant of “Lumen Christi”, the Latin for “Light of Christ”, echoed all around the cavernous basilica, which was packed with faithful. The church became a sea of flickering flames as thousands of faithful inside lit candles before the lights were turned on in a ritual symbolising the darkness in the world after Christ's death and the light of the resurrection. The lights were then switched on and the Mass began, led by Pope Benedict, dressed in gold-and-white coloured vestments.
The Easter Vigil Mass also includes the renewal of baptismal promises. The Pope traditionally baptizes newborn babies on the feast of the Baptism of Jesus in January. But adult converts to Catholicism are baptized by him during the Easter vigil Mass. This time he baptized 5 adults – 2 two Italian men, and a woman each from Italy, China and the United States.
In his homily the theologian Pope explained the themes of fire, light and water that dominate the liturgy of the vigil Mass. "God's creation ... begins with the biblical command: 'Let there be light'. Where there is light, life is born, chaos can be transformed into cosmos," the pope said. He pointed out that the Risen Christ is the light and source of life that “points out to humanity the right path to true life.”
Pope Benedict explained that in the rite of Baptism the light of God is given to the newly baptized. On one occasion when Christ looked upon the people who had come to him, seeking for guidance, he felt compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. “Amid the contradictory messages of that time,” the Pope said, “they did not know which way to turn. “What great compassion he must feel in our own time too, on account of all the endless talk that people hide behind, while in reality they are totally confused,” the Pope said. Saying that Christ is our Light, the Pope urged all to pray to the Lord that the fragile flame of the candle he has lit in us, the delicate light of his word and his love amid the confusions of this age, will not be extinguished in us, but will become ever stronger and brighter, so that we, with him, can be people of the day, bright stars lighting up our time.
The endurance of the Catholic Church itself through the turmoil of centuries was highlighted by Pope Benedict in his sermon. He said that “it always seems as if she ought to be sinking, and yet she is already always saved.” She is between the two gravitational fields of death and evil on one side, and that of God, truth and love on the other. “But once Christ is risen, the gravitational pull of love is stronger than that of hatred; the force of gravity of life is stronger than that of death,” the Pope said.
The night Vigil Mass was the last event in the Easter Triduum. He rested a few hours only to be up again for Easter Sunday Mass in the morning in St. Peter’s Square. In his sermon at the morning mass, the Pope invited all Christians to be the “new dough”, the “unleavened bread”, liberated from every residual element of the old yeast of sin. “No more evil and wickedness in our heart,” he said. “Let us sing it with our lips, and let us sing it above all with our hearts and our lives, with a manner of life that is “unleavened”, that is to say, simple, humble, and fruitful in good works,” the Pope concluded.
At the end of the Easter Sunday Mass, Pope Benedict went up the to the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica and delivered his Urbi et Orbi Easter message and blessing and also greeted the world in 63 languages. “Urbi et Orbi”, the Latin for “to the city of Rome and to the world’, is delivered twice by the Pope - at Christmas and at Easter.
Pope Benedict began his ‘Urbi et Orbi’ message greeting the people with the words of Saint Augustine, the bishop of Hippo: “the resurrection of the Lord is our hope.” “With these words,” the Pope explained in Italian, “the great Bishop explained to the faithful that Jesus rose again so that we, though destined to die, should not despair, worrying that with death life is completely finished; Christ is risen to give us hope.”
“Indeed,” the Pope observed, “one of the questions that most preoccupies men and women is this: what is there after death?” To this mystery, he said, the solemnity allows us to respond that death does not have the last word, because Life will be victorious at the end. “This certainty of ours is based not on simple human reasoning, but on a historical fact of faith: Jesus Christ, crucified and buried, is risen with his glorified body. Jesus is risen so that we too, believing in him, may have eternal life. This proclamation, Pope Benedict said, is at the heart of the Gospel message, as Saint Paul vigorously declares: “If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.”
Pope Benedict explained that the resurrection, is not a theory, but a historical reality revealed by the man Jesus Christ by means of his “Passover”, his “passage”, that has opened a “new way” between heaven and earth. It is neither a myth nor a dream, it is not a vision or a utopia, it is not a fairy tale, but it is a singular and unrepeatable event: Jesus of Nazareth, son of Mary, who at dusk on Friday was taken down from the Cross and buried, has victoriously left the tomb.
Explaining the relevance of the Easter mystery in our days, the Pope Benedict said the proclamation of the Lord’s Resurrection lightens up the dark regions of the world in which we live. He particularly referred to “materialism and nihilism, to a vision of the world that is unable to move beyond what is scientifically verifiable, and retreats cheerlessly into a sense of emptiness which is thought to be the definitive destiny of human life.” He pointed out, “It is a fact that if Christ had not risen, the “emptiness” would be set to prevail. If we take away Christ and his resurrection, there is no escape for man, and every one of his hopes remains an illusion.”
Many times, in the context of the Pauline year, Pope Benedict said, we have had occasion to meditate on the experience of the great Apostle. Saul of Tarsus, the relentless persecutor of Christians, encountered the risen Christ on the road to Damascus, and was “conquered” by him. The rest we know. Pope Benedict thus offered St. Paul as a model to imitate, urging all to “look at this great evangelizer, who with bold enthusiasm and apostolic zeal brought the Gospel to many different peoples in the world of that time.” “Let his teaching and example inspire us to go in search of the Lord Jesus. Let them encourage us to trust him, because that sense of emptiness, which tends to intoxicate humanity, has been overcome by the light and the hope that emanate from the resurrection.
“If it is true that death no longer has power over man and over the world,” Pope Benedict observed, “there still remain very many, in fact too many signs of its former dominion.” Even if through Easter, Christ has destroyed the root of evil, he still wants the assistance of men and women in every time and place who help him to affirm his victory using his own weapons: the weapons of justice and truth, mercy, forgiveness and love. This, the Pope said was the message which he wanted to convey to the entire African continent during his recent Apostolic Visit to Cameroon and Angola – a continent, which he said, welcomed him great enthusiasm and readiness to listen. Africa, the Pope pointed out, suffers disproportionately from the cruel and unending conflicts, often forgotten, that are causing so much bloodshed and destruction in several of her nations, and from the growing number of her sons and daughters who fall prey to hunger, poverty and disease. The same is true for the Holy Land, whereto, the Pope said he would have the joy of travelling in a few weeks time, May 8-15. He said that “reconciliation, though difficult, but indispensable, is a precondition for a future of overall security and peaceful coexistence, and it can only be achieved through renewed, persevering and sincere efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
Pope Benedict’s thoughts then went beyond the Holy Land to neighbouring countries, to the Middle East, to the whole world – to problems engulfing the entire mankind. The Holy Father said that “at a time of world food shortage, of financial turmoil, of old and new forms of poverty, of disturbing climate change, of violence and deprivation which force many to leave their homelands in search of a less precarious form of existence, of the ever-present threat of terrorism, of growing fears over the future, it is urgent to rediscover grounds for hope.” “Let no one draw back from this peaceful battle that has been launched by Christ’s Resurrection,” the Pope appealed, reminding all once more that “Christ is looking for men and women who will help him to affirm his victory using his own weapons: the weapons of justice and truth, mercy, forgiveness and love.”
On Easter, the Pope said, the Church proclaims with joy that the resurrection of Christ is our hope. The Pope said the church communicates this hope that she carries in her heart and wishes to share with all people in every place, especially where Christians suffer persecution because of their faith and their commitment to justice and peace. She invokes the hope that can call forth the courage to do good, even and especially when it costs.
At the end of his Easter message, Pope Benedict XVI delivered Easter greetings in 63 languages of the world, including in Latin, the Vatican’s official language. Speaking in Italian Pope Benedict had special greetings for the quake-hit people of Abruzzo region of Italy. “May the risen Christ guide all paths of justice, solidarity and peace, an inspire in each one the wisdom and courage needed to proceed together in building a future open to hope.” Pope Benedict also pronounced greetings in 15 Asian languages, including Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Bengali, Burmese, Urdu, Sinhala.
Listen to the greetings, beginning with English:
At the end of his greetings in various languages, the Pope imparted his special Easter blessing “Urbi et Orbi”. A cardinal accompanying the Pope announced that all those present in St. Peter’s Square and those following the event on television and radio around the world could obtain a plenary indulgence according to rules established by the Church. According to Catholic teaching, every sin entails a punishment even after it is forgiven through the sacrament of penance. A plenary indulgence means that by the merits of Jesus Christ, the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the saints, the full remission of the temporal punishment is obtained. The basic requirements set by the church for all plenary indulgences are: that within a reasonably short period of time, the person goes to confession, receives the Eucharist and prays for the intentions of the pope, all in a spirit of total detachment from the attraction of sin. Those receiving the Pope’s Easter Blessing could obtain a plenary indulgence.
Receive the Pope’s blessing: