Easter vigil: The resurrection cannot be celebrated without dealing with the shadows of death

Pope Francis assured that the Lord’s Easter is not a “spectacular” event with which “God imposes himself and forces to believe in Him” ​​and pointed out that the resurrection cannot be celebrated without dealing with “the shadows of death that are often loom over the world.”

“Easter cannot be celebrated without facing the nights we carry in the heart and the shadows of death that are often hidden over the world,” said the pontiff in the text he prepared for the celebration of the Pascual vigil, which presided in his place the dean of the Cardinal Cardinal Cardenal Giovanni Battista Re.

The Holy Saturday is one of the most suggestive celebrations of Holy Week, which commemorates the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The liturgy, in which the Pontiff did not participate despite having been a few hours before praying in the Basilica of San Pedro, began with the temple plunged into total darkness to symbolize the death of Jesus.

In the text read by Battista Re, Pope Francis pointed out that the resurrection is “as small outbreaks of light” that break “little by little”, “without making noise” and still “threatened at night and disbelief.”

“It is not a goal that Jesus reaches an easy path, dodging the ordeal; and neither can we live it in a carefree and without a doubt interior,” he insisted

In this way, he pointed out that this “style of God” frees an “abstract religiosity” and “illusion when thinking that the resurrection of the Lord solves everything magically.”

On the other hand, he appreciated that the Pascual vigil “illuminates the step by step, breaks into the darkness of history without a crash, shines in our heart in a discreet way” for which he proposed “a humble faith, devoid of all triumphalism.”

Likewise, Pope Francis urged the faithful to reproduce Easter in their lives and to become “builders of hope while so many winds of death still blow over us.”

For children who were never born and for those who are mistreated

And he added through the mouth of Cardinal Re: “We want to be for those who lack faith in the Lord, for whom they have been lost, for those who have surrendered or walk hunched over the weight of life; for those who are alone or locked in their own pain; for all the poor and oppressed of the earth; for women humiliated and murdered; for children who were never born and for those who are born and for those who are born and for those who are born war”.

In this way, he made it clear that while Christ has overcome sin and destroyed death, “in our earthly history, the power of his resurrection is still being carried out.” So he called the faithful to “germinate the hope of Easter in the world”

“When we still feel the weight of death in our hearts, when we see the shadows of

Bad to follow its noisy march on the world, when we feel to burn in our flesh and in our society the wounds of selfishness or violence, let’s not discourage, let’s go back to the announcement tonight: the light slowly shines even if we are in darkness; the hope of a new life and a world finally liberated awaits us; A new beginning may surprise us although sometimes it seems impossible, because Christ has defeated death, ”he explained.

Pope Francis cited in the text to St. Augustine and the mystique of the thirteenth century, Hadewijch of Antwerp.

“The risen Christ is the definitive turn of human history. He is the hope that does not decline. He is the love that accompanies us and sustains us,” he concluded.

The liturgy began in the atrium of the Basilica of San Pedro where the blessing of the new fire and the preparation of the Easter Cirio, symbol of the resurrected Christ was bless. Next, the procession to the altar was carried out, with the Cirio on, accompanied by the tradition of the traditional Let us The Pascual proclamation that announces the resurrection.

After this initial rite, the Liturgy of the Word and the Baptismal Liturgy were celebrated, during which Cardinal Re administered the sacraments of Christian initiation (baptism, confirmation and Eucharist) to three new faithful, also known as neophytes.