Vatican City, Apr 1, 2018 / 03:30 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Easter morning Pope Francis said God’s announcement to his people always comes as a surprise, like the shock of the disciples who found Jesus’ tomb empty after his resurrection, and told Christians not to waste time responding to the good news they’ve been given.
“The announcements of God are always a surprise, because ours is a God of surprises,” the Pope said April 1, on Easter morning. “From the beginning of the history of salvation, from Abraham, who God tells to ‘go, get up and go to the land I send you to,’ there’s always one surprise after another.”
“God doesn’t know how to make an announcement, a proclamation without surprising us,” he said, “and that surprise moves your heart, it touches you. It happens when you don’t expect it.”
Francis also spoke of the haste with which the women and the disciples in John’s Gospel responded when they heard news of the empty tomb and Jesus’ resurrection, and he posed a question to those present for the Mass, asking “what about you?”
“What about me? Is my heart open to God’s surprises?” he said, urging Christians to ask themselves: “Am I able to go with great haste, or do I stay back and say, ‘I’ll go tomorrow’?”
Pope Francis celebrated Easter Mass in St. Peter’s Square after presiding over the Easter Vigil inside the basilica the night before, bringing a close to the Easter Triduum and the events of Holy Week.
The altar during Mass was bedecked with some 50,000 flowers of different varieties, which were a gift from florists in Holland.
Though he usually sticks to his text during formal liturgies, Francis did not prepare a homily for Easter morning, and spoke to pilgrims in brief, off-the-cuff remarks. He did the same thing last year, meaning a spontaneous reflection Easter morning could be a new trend for the Argentine pope.
In his short homily, the pope focused on three aspects of the day’s Gospel passage from John, in which Peter and John run to the tomb after Mary Magdalene tells them she found it empty earlier that morning.
The three aspects Pope Francis focused on are the surprise of the announcement, the haste with which the women and the disciples ran to the tomb, and the personal response of each
Please see below for the full text of Pope Francis’ homily:
After having listened to the word of God, this passage from the Gospel, I want to say three things. First, the announcement: the Lord is Risen. That proclamation, that from the tine of the early Christians they would greet each other this way: the Lord is risen! And the women that were there to anoint the Lord’s body, they found themselves in front of a surprise. The surprise. The announcements of God are always a surprise, because ours is a God of surprises. So from the beginning of the history of salvation, from Abraham, who God tells to ‘go, get up and go to the land I send you to,’ there’s always one surprise after another. God doesn’t know how to make an announcement, a proclamation without surprising us. And that surprise moves you heart, it touches you. It happens when you don’t expect it. It’s a surprise from ‘down low’, it takes you off guard. God’s announcement was a surprise.
The rush, the women ran, they went in a hurry to get to the tomb, to say ‘we found this!’ The surprises of God put us on the path, on the journey right away, without waiting. So they run to see, and Peter and John, they run. The shepherds, the night of Christmas when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, ran…the Samaritan woman runs to tell her people, ‘this is new, I met a man who told me everything I have ever done!’ These people run, they leave what they’re doing. The housewife leaves the potatoes in the pot, and they’ll be burned, but it’s important to run, to see that surprise that announcement. Today this also happens to us in our neighborhoods, when something happens and people go to see it. People go with great haste. Andrew didn’t waste time and he went to Peter to say: ‘we found the Messiah!’ The surprises, the good news, are always given like this, with great haste. But in the Gospel there is a person who takes their time, who doesn’t want to take a risk, but the Lord is good, and he waits for him with great love. This is Thomas, who said ‘I’ll believe when I see his wounds.’ The Lord is patient with those people who do not get up and leave with great haste.
Thirdly, is a question: and me, what? What about me? Is my heart open to God’s surprises? Am I able to go with great haste, or with that chant, do I stay back and say ‘I’ll go tomorrow’? What is the surprise saying to me? John and Peter, they ran to the tomb. John in his Gospel, tells us to believe. Even Peter, believed, but in his own way, with that faith that is a bit mixed with remorse for having denied the Lord. The announcement that has made a surprise, to run and go with great haste, and the question: what about me, today, in this Easter in 2018? What about me? What about you?
[…]
In a Nietzchean world awash with unstable personalities, it’s time for all of us to consider the inflammatory power of even a few words.
In Germany in 2006 Pope Benedict XVI made an academic reference to the views of 14th-century Manuel Paleologus II about violence within historic Islam (the Regensberg Lecture), and throughout the Muslim world there followed wild street demonstrations and even the likely-related killing of a nun in Egypt. On July 8, 2024 a presidential candidate is reported to have said: “it’s time to put Trump in the bulls-eye” (Associated Press, July 14, 2024)….
And, while we’re at it, what too about the polarizing consequences of clericalists airbrushing fellow Catholics as “backwardist, bigoted, rigid, fixistic and and ideological?”
It’s typical of the vague statements they issue when someone they could not care less about or even hate is attacked. They don’t name the victims or even really acknowledge that they were any. It’s similar to what they say after the latest routine murder of Nigerian Christians by Muslims. They simply deplore “violence”, but never mention “Islam.” If Biden or any leftist had been the target, you can bet that there would have been a clear condemnation of “nationalism” or “populism.” These people occupy the same moral plane as the media that adore them.
“don’t acknowledge there were any at all.”
The Vatican’s comment sounds hollow.
Just sayin’.
While I was eating brunch yesterday with my family, an African American couple ordered in front of us at the counter. They were very well dressed. Perhaps they just came from church? As the man went to get syrup and utensils for their pancakes, a mid-60s Caucasian man with a Midwest baseball team logo on his hat approached and said:
“Too bad the guy missed!”
The African American man looked shocked; wisely did not engage and walked away (I think it was Seneca who said: “Never talk to crazy people.”). The Caucasian boomer with the beer gut then insecurely quipped as the African American man walked away: “Hey man, I’m just saying, you know?” – as if the African American as an African American must have appreciated his murderous mindset. Then the boomer, eating alone (I wonder why?!), opened back up his laptop and entered again into the internet.
For my part, I stayed silent for the sake of my family. But I confessed in the car home that I was torn between confronting him and not engaging like African American man. What did I want to say?
“The assassin did not miss. Four were hit, including our former President, and one has died.”
Witness the culture of death. Abortion has brought us to this place. If it is acceptable to kill an inconvenient child in the womb, why not a political opponent?
Seneca was a wise man.