In his traditional Easter message, Pope Francis has prayed for people suffering from war, violence, abandonment and disease around the world.
An estimated 150,000 people were gathered on Easter Sunday in St Peter’s Square.
The Pope delivered his traditional blessing and address Urbi et Orbi, “to the city and to the world” from the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica.
Pope Francis said the Resurrection of Jesus is “is the basis of our faith and our hope”.
“If Christ were not raised, Christianity would lose its very meaning; the whole mission of the Church would lose its impulse, for this is the point from which it first set out and continues to set out ever anew,” he said.
Pope Francis used the phrase “Come and see” from the story of the empty tomb in Matthew’s Gospel.
Francis said that “in every human situation, marked by frailty, sin and death, the Good News is no mere matter of words, but a testimony to unconditional and faithful love”.
“It is about leaving ourselves behind and encountering others, being close to those crushed by life’s troubles, sharing with the needy, standing at the side of the sick, elderly and the outcast,” he said.
“Come and see,” Francis continued.
“Love is more powerful, love gives life, love makes hope blossom in the wilderness.”
“With this joyful certainty in our hearts, today we turn to you, risen Lord,” said Francis
The Pope prayed particularly for peoples in Syria, Iraq, Israel, Palestine, Nigeria, South Sudan, Venezuela, and Ukraine.
He noted that the Roman church is celebrating this Easter along with the Orthodox churches in an unusual alignment of their separate liturgical calendars.
Among those the Pope prayed for were those with hunger, “aggravated by conflicts and by the immense wastefulness for which we are often responsible”.
He also prayed for the vulnerable, “especially children, women and the elderly, who are at times exploited and abandoned”.
And he prayed for those afflicted by a new Ebola disease outbreak in West Africa.
Sources