From Fr. Steve Lacroix, CSC
Alleluia! He is risen! It always feels good to say that after 40 days of Lent, but that is especially true this year. Last year we were unable to gather in person for our Easter celebration, so it feels especially good to celebrate it together (as well as with our parishioners who continue to watch the livestream Mass at home – we miss you and pray for you on this holy day). I thought I’d take this opportunity to share with you some of Pope Francis’ Easter homily from last year, written during the middle of the COVID lockdowns. I hope this message will continue to give us hope as we try to emerge from this pandemic with a stronger faith. God bless you all!
“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 […]