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Illustration:Women at the empty tomb, by Fra Angelico, 1437–1446
Pope Francis Homily for the Easter Vigil
St Peter’s Basilica – Holy Saturday, 19 April 2025
“Sisters, brothers, the Easter season is a time of hope”
Luke 24:1-12
But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices which they had prepared. 2 And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they went in they did not find the body.[a] 4 While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel; 5 and as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.[b] 6 Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, 7 that the Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise.” 8 And they remembered his words, 9 and returning from the tomb they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. 10 Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told this to the apostles; 11 but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. 12 But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home wondering at what had happened.
Pope Francis’ Homily
It is night, when the Paschal candle slowly advances toward the altar.
It is night, when the singing of the Easter Proclamationinvites us to a heartfelt rejoicing,
“Rejoice, let earth rejoice, as glory floods her, aflame with the light of the eternal King… knowing an end to gloom and darkness” (Exsultet).
It is in the last hours of the night that the events recounted in the Gospel take place.
The divine light of the Resurrection begins to shine and the Lord’s Passover from death to life takes place as the sun is about to rise.
The first light of dawn revealed that the great stone placed in front of Jesus’ tomb had been rolled away, as some women in mourning dress, made their way to the tomb.
The confusion and fear of the disciples was still enshrouded by darkness.
Everything happens in the night.
The Easter Vigil, then, reminds us that the light of the Resurrection illuminates our path, step by step. silently breaking through the darkness of history and shining in our hearts, demanding the response of a humble faith, devoid of all triumphalism.
The Lord’s passage from death to life is not a spectacular event through which God demonstrates his power and compels us to believe in him.
For Jesus, it was not the end of an easy journey that bypassed Calvary.
Nor should we experience it as such, casually and unthinkingly.
On the contrary, the resurrection is like a small seed of light that slowly and silently takes root in our hearts, sometimes still prey to darkness and unbelief.
This “style” of God frees us from a disembodied piety that falsely imagines that the Resurrection of the Lord solves everything as if by magic.
On the contrary, we cannot celebrate Easter without continuing to confront the nights that linger in our hearts and the shadows of death that so often loom over our world.
Christ has conquered sin and destroyed death, but the power of his resurrection is still being fulfilled in our earthly history.
And that fulfilment, like a small seed of light, has been entrusted to us, to protect and grow.
Brothers and sisters, especially during this Jubilee Year, let us feel strongly the call to let the hope of Easter blossom in our lives and in the world!
When the thought of death weighs heavily on our hearts,
when we see the dark shadows of evil advancing in our world,
when we feel the wounds of selfishness or violence festering in our flesh and in our society,
let us not lose heart, but return to the message of this night.
The light shines softly, though we are in darkness; the promise of new life and a world finally set free awaits us; and a new beginning, however impossible it may seem, can take us by surprise, for Christ has triumphed over death.
This message fills our hearts with new hope.
For in the risen Jesus we have the certainty that our personal history and that of our human family, though still immersed in a dark night where the lights seem distant and dim, are nevertheless in God’s hands.
In his great love, he will not let us falter or allow evil to have the last word.
At the same time, this hope, already fulfilled in Christ, remains for us a goal to be attained.
But it has been entrusted to us so that we may bear credible witness to it, so that the Kingdom of God may find its way into the hearts of the women and men of our time.
As Saint Augustine reminds us, “The resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ is new life for those who believe in him; this mystery of his passion and resurrection you should know well and to imitate in your lives” (Homily 231, 2).
We must reflect Easter in our lives and become messengers of hope, builders of hope, even when so many winds of death are blowing against us.
We can do this with our words, with our small daily acts, with decisions inspired by the Gospel.
Our whole life can be a presence of hope.
We want to be that presence
– for those who do not believe in the Lord,
– for those who have lost their way,
– for those who are alone or overwhelmed by their suffering;
– for all the poor and oppressed in our world;
– for the many women who are humiliated and killed;
– for the unborn and the abused children; and
– for the victims of war.
To each and all of them, let us bring the hope of Easter!
I like to think of a thirteenth-century mystic, Hadewijch of Antwerp, who, inspired by the Song of Songs, describes her suffering over the absence of her beloved and invokes the return of love so that — as she says — “there may be a turning point to my darkness”
(Poesie, Visioni, Lettere, Genoa 2000, 23).
The risen Christ is the definitive turning point in human history.
He is the hope that never fades.
He is the love that accompanies us and sustains us.
He is the future of history, he is the final goal towards which we journey,
to be received into that new life in which the Lord himself will wipe away all our tears and
“death, mourning and crying and pain will be no more” (Rev 21:4).
And it is up to us to proclaim this Easter hope, this “turning point” where darkness becomes light.
Sisters and brothers, the Easter season is a time of hope.
There is still fear, there still is a painful awareness of sinfulness,
but there also is light breaking through…
Easter brings the good news that even though things seem to be getting worse in the world.
Evil One has already been overcome.
Easter allows us to affirm that even though God seems very distant and we remain busy with small things, our Lord walks with us on the road…
Thus there are many rays of hope that still shed their light on our journey through life”
(H. Nouwen, A Cry for Mercy, Prayers from the Genesee).
Let us make room for the light of the Risen One!
And we will become builders of hope for the world.
