Pope Francis said that Jesus has “entered the tomb of our sin” and restored us to life, in the Easter Vigil Mass at the Vatican.
“Let us celebrate Easter with Christ! He is alive! Today, too, he walks in our midst, changes us and sets us free,” Pope Francis said in his homily in St. Peter’s Basilica on 16 April.
“Thanks to him, evil has been robbed of its power; failure can no longer hold us back from starting anew, and death has become a passage to the stirrings of new life.”
“For with Jesus, the Risen Lord, no night will last forever; and even in the darkest night … the morning star continues to shine,” the Pope said.
Pope Francis did not preside over the Easter Vigil Mass or participate in the Paschal candle procession but sat in the front of the congregation in a white chair due to his knee pain.
Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the dean of the College of Cardinals, served as the main celebrant of the Mass. The pope participated in the Easter Vigil by delivering the homily and baptizing seven catechumens.
In his homily, Pope Francis spoke of bringing Christ’s light into days “marked by the horrors of war” through gestures of peace and acts of compassion.
“Let us make Jesus, the Living One, rise again from all those tombs in which we have sealed him,” Francis said.