Pope Francis, leading an Easter vigil service scaled down due to COVID-19, said on Saturday he hoped the dark times of the pandemic would end and that people could rediscover “the grace of everyday life.”
This year has been the second consecutive Easter that all papal services are being attended by only about 200 people in a secondary altar of St. Peter’s Basilica instead of the nearly 10,000 that the largest church in Christendom can hold.
The service began two hours earlier than usual so that participants could get home before a 10 p.m. curfew in Rome, which, like the rest of Italy, is under tough lockdown restrictions during the Easter weekend.
At the start of the service, the basilica was in darkness except for the flames from candles held by participants to signify the darkness in the world before Jesus. As the pope, cardinals and bishops processed to the altar and a cantor chanted three times, the basilica’s lights were turned on.
In his homily, Pope Francis, marking the ninth Easter season of his pontificate, said the festival brought with it the hope for renewal on a personal as well as a global level.
“It is always possible to begin anew because there is a new life that God can awaken in us in spite of all our failures,” Pope Francis said.
“In these dark months of the pandemic, let us listen to the Risen Lord as he invites us to begin anew and never lose hope.”
He said that just as Jesus brought his message “to those struggling to live from day to day,” people today should care for those most in need on the fringes of society.
In his homily, the pope reflected what it means to go to Galilee.
“In this Galilee, we learn to be amazed by the Lord’s infinite love, which opens new trails along the path of our defeats,” he said.
“From the rubble of our hearts, God can create a work of art; from the ruined remnants of our humanity, God can prepare a new history.”
Pope Francis also reminded the faithful that “Jesus is not outdated.”
“He walks beside you each day, in every trial you have to endure, in your deepest hopes and dreams,” he said.
Even if you feel that all is lost, let yourself be open to amazement at the newness Jesus brings: He will surely surprise you.”
Going back to his constant call for everyone to go to the “peripheries,” the pope said that God goes to the “very peripheries of existence, since in His eyes no one is least, no one is excluded.”
He said the Risen Lord is asking His disciples to go to the settings of daily life, to the streets, to the corners of the cities.
“There the Lord goes ahead of us and makes Himself present in the lives of those around us, those who share in our day, our home, our work, our difficulties, and hopes,” said Pope Francis.
“We will be amazed how the greatness of God is revealed in littleness, how His beauty shines forth in the poor and simple.”
He then invited everyone “to overcome barriers, banish prejudices and draw near to those around us every day in order to rediscover the grace of everyday life.”
“Let us recognize Him here in our Galilees, in everyday life,” he said. “Beyond all defeats, evil and violence, beyond all suffering and death, the Risen One lives and guides history.”
On Easter Sunday, the most important day in the Christian liturgical calendar, the pope will deliver his “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and the world) message. – with a report from Reuters
