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Burnand, “Peter and John Running to the Sepulcher at the Resurrection,” 1898
From a Homily of Pope Francis, Easter Vigil, 2022
The women proclaimed…the joy of the resurrection. Easter did not occur simply to console those who mourned the death of Jesus, but to open hearts to the extraordinary message of God’s triumph over evil and death. The light of the resurrection was not meant to let the women bask in a transport of joy, but to generate missionary disciples who “return from the tomb” to bring the Gospel of the risen Christ.
That is why the women ran to proclaim to the disciples the joy of the resurrection. They knew the others might think them mad, yet…their hearts were enflamed only with a desire to convey the proclamation: “The Lord is risen!”. How beautiful is a Church that can run this way through the streets of our world!….
Brothers and sisters our hope has a name: “Jesus”. He entered the tomb of our sin; descended to those depths where we feel most lost; he wove his way through the tangles of our fears, bore the weight of our burdens and from the dark abyss of death restored us to life and turned our mourning into joy.
Let us celebrate Easter with Christ! He is alive! Today, too, he walks in our midst, changes us and sets us free. Thanks to him, evil has been robbed of its power; failure can no longer hold us back from starting anew; and death has become a passage to the stirrings of new life. For with Jesus, the Risen Lord, no night lasts forever; and even in the darkest night, the morning star continues to shine.
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