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We, like Peter and the women, cannot discover life by being sad, bereft of hope. Let us not stay imprisoned within ourselves, but let us break open our sealed tombs to the Lord—each of us knows what they are—so that he may enter and grant us life.
Let us give him the stones of our rancour and the boulders of our past, those heavy burdens of our weaknesses and falls. Christ wants to come and take us by the hand to bring us out of our anguish.
This is the first stone to be moved aside this night: the lack of hope which imprisons us within ourselves. May the Lord free us from this trap, from being Christians without hope, Christians who live as if the Lord were not risen, as if our problems were the center of our lives.
We see and will continue to see problems both within and without. They will always be with us. But today it is important to shed the light of the Risen Lord upon our problems, and in a certain sense, to “evangelize” them.
To evangelize our problems. Let us not allow darkness and fear to distract us and control us; we must cry out to them: The Lord is not here, but has risen! (Lk 24:6).
He is our greatest joy; he is always at our side and will never let us down. This is the foundation of our hope, which is not mere optimism, nor a psychological attitude or desire to be courageous. Christian hope is a gift that God gives us if we come out of ourselves and open our hearts to him.
Today is the celebration of our hope, the celebration of this truth: nothing and no one will ever be able to separate us from his love (cf. Rom 8:39).
The Lord is alive and wants to be sought among the living. Then after having found him, each person is sent out by him to announce the Easter message, to awaken and resurrect hope in hearts burdened by sadness, in those who struggle to find meaning in life. This is so necessary today.
Remember the words of Jesus, remember all that he has done in our lives. Let us not forget his words and his works, otherwise we will lose hope and become “hopeless” Christians.
Let us instead remember the Lord—his goodness, and his life-giving words which have touched us. Let us remember them and make them ours. Let us be sentinels of the morning, sentinels who know how to help others see the signs of the Risen Lord.
Excerpted from Pope Francis’ homily at the Easter Vigil, March 26, 2016
