FROM OUR HOLY SATURDAYS TO THE EASTER SUNDAYS OF OUR LIVES

Love me, I call out to you.
Why don’t you love me?
I reach out to you.
Please love me!
Oh how I long for your love!

Words to Ponder from Pope Francis’ Easter Vigil Homily, 2018

HOLY SATURDAY

“In those hours when the disciples stood or sat speechless and in pain before, during and after the death of Jesus: what words could they have spoken?

“Before the calumnies and the false testimony that the Master endured, they said nothing.
During the trying, painful hours of the Passion, they were unable to put their lives on the line to speak out on his behalf.
Not only did they not acknowledge him:
they hid,
they escaped,
they kept silent (cf. Jn 18:25-27).

“They were numb, paralyzed and uncertain
of what to do
amid so many painful and disheartening situations.

“We, too, are speechless
in the face of situations we cannot control,
that make us feel and, even worse, believe
that nothing can be done to reverse all the injustices
that our brothers and sisters are experiencing in their flesh.

. . . .

EASTER MORNING

“Today, we are invited to contemplate the empty tomb and to hear the words: “Why do you seek the LIVING ONE among the dead? He is not here, but he has been raised.” (Lk 24:6). Those words should affect our deepest convictions and the way we judge and WHAT WE PERCEIVE in the events of our daily lives.

“The empty tomb challenges us to rally our spirits. It makes us think, but above all, it encourages us to trust and believe that God “happens” in every situation and every person and that his light shines in the least expected and most hidden corners of our lives.

“He rose from the dead, from that place where nobody waits for anything, and now he waits for us – as he awaited the women to come to the tomb – to enable us to share in his saving work.

“On this basis and with this strength, we Christians place our lives and our energy, our intelligence, our affections and our wills, at the service of discovering, and above all creating, paths of dignity.

“‘He is not here… he is risen!’ is the message that sustains our hope and turns it into concrete gestures of charity.

“How greatly we need to let our frailty be anointed by this experience! How greatly we need to let our faith be revived!

“How greatly we need our myopic horizons to be challenged and renewed by this message!

“Christ is risen.
We believe in Him.
He makes our hope and creativity rise
so that we can face our present problems
in the knowledge
that we are not alone.

“To celebrate Easter is to believe
once more
that God constantly breaks into our personal histories,
challenging our “conventions”,
those fixed ways of thinking and acting
that end up paralyzing us.

“To celebrate Easter
is to allow Jesus to triumph
over the craven fear
that so often assails us
and tries to bury every kind of hope.

“The women of the Gospel ‘announced to the others’,
and now the invitation is addressed once more to you and to me:
The invitation to break out of our routines
and to renew our lives, our decisions, and our existence.
The invitation that must be directed to where we stand,
what we are doing
and what we are,
the “power” that is ours.

“Do we want to share in this message of life
or do we prefer simply to continue standing speechless
before events as they happen?

“He is not here… he is raised!
And he awaits you.
He invites you to go back
to the time and place of your first love
and he says to you:
Do not be afraid, follow me.”

Oh, how I long for your love.