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Vatican Basilica
Holy Saturday, 30 March 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.
Dear brothers and sisters, we are afraid of God’s surprises! He always
surprises us! The Lord is like that.
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.
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; Jesus 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, for you 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.
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. “Remember what he told you when he was still
in Galilee… And they remembered his words” (Lk 24:6,8). This is the invitation 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
traveled; 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, to the beautiful
surprises of God. 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, dear brothers and sisters, not to look
among the dead for the Living One. AMEN.
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