Vatican City, Apr 11, 2020 / 03:40 pm (CNA).- Here is the full text of the Easter Vigil homily of Pope Francis, delivered April 11 at St. Peter’s Basilica.
“After the Sabbath” (Mt 28:1), the women went to the tomb. This is how the Gospel of this holy Vigil began: with the Sabbath. It is the day of the Easter Triduum that we tend to neglect as we eagerly await the passage from Friday’s cross to Easter Sunday’s Alleluia. This year however, we are experiencing, more than ever, the great silence of Holy Saturday. We can imagine ourselves in the position of the women on that day. They, like us, had before their eyes the drama of suffering, of an unexpected tragedy that happened all too suddenly. They had seen death and it weighed on their hearts. Pain was mixed with fear: would they suffer the same fate as the Master? Then too there was fear about the future and all that would need to be rebuilt. A painful memory, a hope cut short. For them, as for us, it was the darkest hour.
Yet in this situation the women did not allow themselves to be paralyzed. They did not give in to the gloom of sorrow and regret, they did not morosely close in on themselves, or flee from reality. On the Sabbath they were doing something simple yet extraordinary: preparing at home the spices to anoint the body of Jesus. They did not stop loving; in the darkness of their hearts, they lit a flame of mercy. Our Lady spent that Saturday, the day that would be dedicated to her, in prayer and hope. She responded to sorrow with trust in the Lord. Unbeknownst to these women, they were making preparations, in the darkness of that Sabbath, for “the dawn of the first day of the week”, the day that would change history. Jesus, like a seed buried in the ground, was about to make new life blossom in the world; and these women, by prayer and love, were helping to make that hope flower. How many people, in these sad days, have done and are still doing what those women did, sowing seeds of hope! With small gestures of care, affection and prayer.
At dawn the women went to the tomb. There the angel says to them: “Do not be afraid. He is not here; for he has risen” (vv. 5-6). They hear the words of life even as they stand before a tomb… And then they meet Jesus, the giver of all hope, who confirms the message and says: “Do not be afraid” (v. 10). Do not be afraid, do not yield to fear: This is the message of hope. It is addressed to us, today. Today. These are the words that God repeats to us this very night.
Tonight we acquire a fundamental right that can never be taken away from us: the right to hope. It is a new and living hope that comes from God. It is not mere optimism; it is not a pat on the back or an empty word of encouragement, with a passing smile. No. It is a gift from heaven, which we could not have earned on our own. Over these weeks, we have kept repeating, “All will be well”, clinging to the beauty of our humanity and allowing words of encouragement to rise up from our hearts. But as the days go by and fears grow, even the boldest hope can dissipate. Jesus’ hope is different. He plants in our hearts the conviction that God is able to make everything work unto good, because even from the grave he brings life.
The grave is the place where no one who enters ever leaves. But Jesus emerged for us; he rose for us, to bring life where there was death, to begin a new story in the very place where a stone had been placed. He, who rolled away the stone that sealed the entrance of the tomb, can also remove the stones in our hearts. So, let us not give in to resignation; let us not place a stone before hope. We can and must hope, because God is faithful. He did not abandon us; he visited us and entered into our situations of pain, anguish and death. His light dispelled the darkness of the tomb: today he wants that light to penetrate even to the darkest corners of our lives. Dear sister, dear brother, even if in your heart you have buried hope, do not give up: God is greater. Darkness and death do not have the last word. Be strong, for with God nothing is lost!
Courage. This is a word often spoken by Jesus in the Gospels. Only once do others say it, to encourage a person in need: “Courage; rise, [Jesus] is calling you!” (Mk 10:49). It is he, the Risen One, who raises us up from our neediness. If, on your journey, you feel weak and frail, or fall, do not be afraid, God holds out a helping hand and says to you: “Courage!”. You might say, as did Don Abbondio (in Manzoni’s novel), “Courage is not something you can give yourself” (I Promessi Sposi, XXV). True, you cannot give it to yourself, but you can receive it as a gift. All you have to do is open your heart in prayer and roll away, however slightly, that stone placed at the entrance to your heart so that Jesus’ light can enter. You only need to ask him: “Jesus, come to me amid my fears and tell me too: Courage!” With you, Lord, we will be tested but not shaken. And, whatever sadness may dwell in us, we will be strengthened in hope, since with you the cross leads to the resurrection, because you are with us in the darkness of our nights; you are certainty amid our uncertainties, the word that speaks in our silence, and nothing can ever rob us of the love you have for us.
This is the Easter message, a message of hope. It contains a second part, the sending forth. “Go and tell my brethren to go to Galilee” (Mt 28:10), Jesus says. “He is going before you to Galilee” (v. 7), the angel says. The Lord goes before us. He always goes before us. It is encouraging to know that he walks ahead of us in life and in death; he goes before us to Galilee, that is, to the place which for him and his disciples evoked the idea of daily life, family and work. Jesus wants us to bring hope there, to our everyday life. For the disciples, Galilee was also the place of remembrance, for it was the place where they were first called. Returning to Galilee means remembering that we have been loved and called by God. Each of us has our own Galilee. We need to resume the journey, reminding ourselves that we are born and reborn thanks to an invitation given gratuitously to us out of love. This is always the point from which we can set out anew, especially in times of crisis and trial.
But there is more. Galilee was the farthest region from where they were: from Jerusalem. And not only geographically. Galilee was also the farthest place from the sacredness of the Holy City. It was an area where people of different religions lived: it was the “Galilee of the Gentiles” (Mt 4:15). Jesus sends them there and asks them to start again from there. What does this tell us? That the message of hope should not be confined to our sacred places, but should be brought to everyone. For everyone is in need of reassurance, and if we, who have touched “the Word of life” (1 Jn 1:1) do not give it, who will? How beautiful it is to be Christians who offer consolation, who bear the burdens of others and who offer encouragement: messengers of life in a time of death! In every Galilee, in every area of the human family to which we all belong and which is part of us – for we are all brothers and sisters – may we bring the song of life! Let us silence the cries of death, no more wars! May we stop the production and trade of weapons, since we need bread, not guns. Let the abortion and killing of innocent lives end. May the hearts of those who have enough be open to filling the empty hands of those who do not have the bare necessities.
Those women, in the end, “took hold” of Jesus’ feet (Mt 28:9); feet that had travelled so far to meet us, to the point of entering and emerging from the tomb. The women embraced the feet that had trampled death and opened the way of hope. Today, as pilgrims in search of hope, we cling to you, Risen Jesus. We turn our backs on death and open our hearts to you, for you are Life itself.
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Does Father Martin have any research data behind his comments about the number of chaste SSA clergy?
I’m guilty of making unqualified statements too but I’m not a priest nor a public figure being interviewed.
Father Martin’s statement is likely correct but he should acknowledge it’s his personal opinion unless he has additional information to back it up.
Perhaps the priest has heard the word, “No”?
To fully understand Martin’s role at the Synod, it is necessary to fully understand the MINDSET of Pope Francis…
Namely (as a mere bystander, I humbly propose), his proposition that instead of dynamically “handing on the deposit of faith,” this deposit itself, within the patience of time, is more of a polarizing space. A polarity within a dynamic tension (no longer deposit) with the different and more concrete pole of the particular. Almost as if the Incarnation of the Creed—two natures in one Person—is no longer the “concrete universal.”
But instead, only the universal in tension with the concrete… Situated morality becomes Situation Ethics, butt with orthodoxy not rejected, but still retained and reaffirmed, as an OPTION within the broader or ostensibly higher mix. This Francis proposition/mindset is favorably and well set forth by one of his tribe, Ivereigh, in this article posted in 2017 on CRUX: https://cruxnow.com/book-review/2017/11/new-book-looks-intellectual-history-francis-pope-polarity.
Regarding Fr. Martin, then, homosexual activity is the “third option” of a transcendent synthesis which does not replace, but which continues to include on the menu the more “rigid” and binary human sexuality (therefore, the new synthesis/ dispensation is not Hegelian). For the real Catholic Church, however, this particular “third option”—and others of its kind: a male alongside female priesthood, authentic alongside bigamous marriages, the “hierarchical communion” alongside redefined synodality, etc.–is really the THIRD RAIL.
Butt, Francis, long before becoming pope, was of the mind that the Church itself [!]—by its very nature (if there still is a “nature”)—is instead more like a “catalyst” (my word, but recalling his early chemistry background) of the Holy Spirit always on the move with the particular, as in “walking together.” Rather than, say, standing STEADFAST together! Evangelii Gaudium: “time is greater than space!” Can we not see, then, that Francis’s hypothesis probably brands even the Faith & Reason polarities(!) as “backwardist” stuff?
Where Francis would have us make “decisions” in the concrete, for example, the Catechism and Veritatis Splendor (VS) already clarify that–with a well-formed conscience (!)–each of us is personally(!) responsible for making concrete(!) moral “judgments” (VS, nn. 56, 95), particularly(!) with regard to moral absolutes (“Thou shalt not…”).
But, then, “who am I to ‘judge’”? Now meaning, let us “decide,” synodally! Now, with the laity recruited as a useful pawn in a theological parlor game—like a black star, Fernandez even absorbs the dubia as synodal!
Ivereigh (in the linked CRUX) then also reasons that Chesterton is also into the polarity thingy, with: “G.K. Chesterton once described a heresy as a good idea gone mad.” CHESTERTON, who said this of what’s truly mad:
“The madman is not the man who has lost his reason. The madman is the man who has lost everything except his reason [….] that his mind moves in a perfect but narrow circle. A small circle is quite as infinite as a large circle; but though quite infinite, it is not so large [that is] the insane explanation is quite as complete as the sane one, but it is not so large.” The small circle: the tautological and self-validating (!) Synod on Synodality. With Chesterton, are the lunatics in charge of the asylum?
Or instead, this: “The Catholic Church is the only thing that frees a man from the degrading slavery of being a child of his age.”
Every priest is human and has his own struggles. No doubt there are many priests who struggle with disordered sexual attractions, but any priest who identifies himself by these attractions, (e.g., “I am gay.”) is going to find it very difficult to live out his priesthood.
It is sad that Fr. Martin falls into the pop culture error of seeing a person through the lens of his or her disordered desires. Christ came to free us from all that.
Well said! If we love someone, we want union with God for them, not sin that can turn us away from God.
How does Fr. Martin know if someone else is chaste? He says many are. So does that mean more are not? Perhaps he knows priests who are not chaste? And to be sure, he knows many priests who have homosexual attractions. Why doesn’t he say if he is chaste? St. Paul had a lot to say in Sacred Scripture about chastity. And he used himself as an example. Perhaps Fr. Martin can preach from his own experience? Is all of this about his own experience?
Fr. Martin has no data. But there is sound data that shows that over 80% of sexual crimes in the Church against children are committed by men with boys. Obviously, legitimizing pererastry is next step on the agenda after “blessings” for same-sex unions. It’s just a matter of time, which is greater than space.
The problem for me is not that same sex attracted priests will be sexually active, it is the immature and childish behavior that they bring into the priesthood. I have witnessed this firsthand and lament the forced revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual so many years ago.
It sounds as though homosexualists can find you guilty in conscience of whatever they decide to identify in you as disfavouring them as to be against faith even; while at the same time it is impossible for the faithful to point out their folly and faux that they themselves have declared integral in their identity.
It is anathema and upholding it is worse anathema.
If they are chaste single men then they are not gay.
A celibate Priest or layman with SSA can be a good Catholic. SSA is a cross to bear. Those who have it deserve our support and encouragement.
Regarding being harassed by “ssa”, you shouldn’t be saying merely that it’s your cross and Bob’s your uncle; you must want to have a very reactive mind and heart against it.