Archbishop of Westminster Richard Moth, celebrating his first Easter Vigil in the diocese, spoke about the many Catholics this Easter receiving the Sacraments of Initiation.
“You reflect the hope that is the Lord’s Resurrection, for you are witnesses to His new life and you remind us of all that the Lord has done for us,” he said.
All of human history looks to the Resurrection, he added.
“In our present times the world is so often confusing and conflicted, subject to ever-changing and often illusory demands and attractions. Humanity is marked, scarred, by warfare and injustice, often instigated by greed and misguided power, bringing harm and death to so many and so often the most vulnerable.
“Christ calls us to step into this world, carrying with us a message that is unchanging, yet always new. It is unchanging, for it is the message of the Gospel, the Good News of the light of the Risen Christ, whose words in the Upper Room after His resurrection are Peace be with you. It is ever new, not only because this message needs to be heard afresh, but because Jesus calls us to the eternal, to the mystery that is beyond time and is, therefore, always new. It is the wonder of this life that we carry with us, a message so wondrous that, when lived out as we are truly called to live it, is completely irresistible.”
Earlier, in his homily for Good Friday, he said, “Why did the Father permit the dreadful events that we remember today? On the days when we say the Creed, we hear not once, but twice the words ‘for us’. Jesus dies for you and for me and for every person at every point in our human history. He dies for those who are not yet born and for every human being since the creation of the first of the human race.”
Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally, in her first Easter sermon in the role at Canterbury Cathedral tomorrow, will focus on how the resurrection offers hope for individuals and for the world, whatever the darkness that is around.
She is expected to say: “The invitation of Easter is to a relationship. Jesus does not wait for Mary to be certain; he finds her in her grief and darkness and calls her into the light and hope of resurrection.”
Archbishop Sarah will also praise nurses, carers, parents and all those provide care. She is expected to say: “Last night, in hospitals around the country, nurses tended to those who struggled to sleep. In hospices, carers and loved ones will have held someone’s hand, letting them know they are not alone. Parents will have cradled their babies to sleep. This vigil of care is the work of remaining – of staying present in the quiet and the dark.”
Reflecting on individual struggles and crises, she will say: “Perhaps you are here today standing in your own version of the dark, perhaps with your own heart shattered… If you have been knocked off course by illness, bereavement, unemployment or any other human crisis – I pray you know that God walks with you through that darkness.”
Reflecting on the war in the Middle East, she will call for peace in the region: “This week our gaze and our prayers have been turned towards the land where Jesus was crucified and raised from the dead. Today, as we shout with joy that Christ is risen, let us pray and call with renewed urgency for an end to the violence and destruction in the Middle East and the Gulf. May our Christian sisters and brothers know and celebrate the hope of the empty tomb – and may all people of the region receive the peace, justice and freedom they long for.”
Archbishop of Armagh Eamon Martin referred to the conflicts around the world.
“In recent months, dark clouds of war and violence have overshadowed the coming of spring and the promise of hope that springtime naturally brings into the world. Although from this distance we cannot hear the bombs and sirens of warfare from the Middle East or Ukraine, the distressing impact of conflict ripples around the world with escalating prices and volatile markets, and a creeping sense of despair.
“Proponents of so-called ‘modern warfare’ try to tell us that attacks can be clinical and contained, but that’s an illusion. We are deceiving ourselves to think that the ongoing use of rockets and bombs in built up areas, or the destruction of essential infrastructure, roads, bridges, water and fuel stations does anything other than spread fear and terror among innocent, civilian populations. Let us be clear: war corrupts and depresses. War is ‘a defeat for humanity’. All the more reason then for us to ‘hold on to hope’, this Easter.”
Yesterday, Good Friday, Pope Leo XIV became the first pope for decades to carry the Cross for the entire Via Crucis at the Colosseum.
Watched by 30,000 faithful in Rome and thousands more on media worldwide, he was the first since Pope St John Paul II, who carried the Cross for the entire Via Crucis from 1980 until 1994.
In his Easter Vigil homily this evening, he said, “Sisters and brothers, even in our day there is no shortage of tombs to be opened, and often the stones that close them are so heavy and well-guarded that they seem immovable. Some oppress the heart, such as mistrust, fear, selfishness, resentment; others, the consequence of these internal ones, break the bonds between us, such as war, injustice, the isolation of peoples and nations.
“Let us not allow ourselves to be paralysed by them! Many men and women, over the centuries, with God’s help, have rolled them away, perhaps with great difficulty, sometimes at the cost of their lives, but with fruits of goodness from which we still benefit today. They are not unattainable figures, but people like us who, strengthened by the grace of the Risen One, in charity and truth, have had the courage to speak, as the Apostle Peter says, with the words of God.”