No failure will doom us to despair, pope says on Easter

Michie · Mar 31, 2024

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Easter is a promise that no matter how dark the world may seem and no matter how heavy the burdens one carries, victory belongs to the Risen Christ and all who believe in him, Pope Francis said.

“Let us lift our eyes to him and ask that the power of his resurrection may roll away the heavy stones that weigh down our souls,” the pope said in his homily at the Easter Vigil March 30.

“Let us lift our eyes to him, the Risen Lord, and press forward in the certainty that, against the obscure backdrop of our failed hopes and our deaths, the eternal life that he came to bring is even now present in our midst,” he said.

After staying home the night before rather than preside over the Way of the Cross at Rome’s Colosseum, the pope arrived at the basilica in a wheelchair. Although he had to clear his throat several times, he read the entire prepared text of his homily.

Pope baptizes 8 adults at Easter Vigil Mass

During the Mass, two deacons brought a baptismal font to Pope Francis, and he baptized eight adults: four Italians, two South Koreans, a man from Japan and a woman from Albania. He also confirmed them and gave them their first Communion.

The liturgy began in the back of St. Peter’s Basilica, under a tapestry of the Risen Christ, with the blessing of the fire and the lighting of the Easter candle.

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Norbertine Brother Gerard P. Juhasz, a deacon from St. Michael’s Abbey in Silverado, California, carried the paschal candle into a darkened St. Peter’s Basilica, chanting three times, “Lumen Christi” (Latin for “the Light of Christ”). After being blessed by Pope Francis, he sang the Exsultet, the solemn Easter proclamation.

Think of the women at the tomb

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