Vatican City (AsiaNews) - May the Risen Christ brings
hope and peace to the world and particularly in the Middle East - with a
special thought for the Syria, Iraq, Israel and Palestine - and Africa - the Horn
of Africa, the Great Lakes Region, Sudan and South Sudan, Mali and Nigeria -
and both hope and comfort "in a particular way for those Christian
communities suffering most for their faith on account of discrimination and
persecution." The Christian communities that are suffering and the
world's troubled regions were at the centre of Benedict XVI's thoughts on the
festive day of announcement in which the Church renews the cry of Mary
Magdalene: "He is 'Risen! He is truly risen."
"Easter
- said last night during the Easter vigil - is the feast of the new creation. Jesus
is risen and dies no more. He has opened the door to a new life, one that no
longer knows illness and death. He has taken mankind up into God himself.
"
The
Creation, in the bible story, begins with light and he said again during the
"Vigil of all vigils", "At Easter, on the morning of the first
day of the week, God said once again: "Let there be light". The night on the Mount of Olives, the solar eclipse of Jesus' passion and
death, the night of the grave had all passed. Now it is the first day once
again - creation is beginning anew. "Let there be light", says God, "and there
was light": Jesus rises from the grave. Life is stronger than death. Good is
stronger than evil. Love is stronger than hate. Truth is stronger than lies. The
darkness of the previous days is driven away the moment Jesus rises from the
grave and himself becomes God's pure light".
"The
darkness that poses a real threat to mankind, after all, is the fact that he
can see and investigate tangible material things, but cannot see where the
world is going or whence it comes, where our own life is going, what is good
and what is evil. The darkness enshrouding God and obscuring values is the real
threat to our existence and to the world in general. If God and moral values,
the difference between good and evil, remain in darkness, then all other
"lights", that put such incredible technical feats within our reach, are not
only progress but also dangers that put us and the world at risk. Today we can
illuminate our cities so brightly that the stars of the sky are no longer
visible. Is this not an image of the problems caused by our version of
enlightenment? With regard to material things, our knowledge and our technical
accomplishments are legion, but what reaches beyond, the things of God and the
question of good, we can no longer identify. Faith, then, which reveals God's
light to us, is the true enlightenment, enabling God's light to break into our
world, opening our eyes to the true light".
Today,
in St. Peter's Square, there were more than 60 thousand people for the Easter
Mass and about sixty television stations that broadcast the ceremonies throughout
the world. Adressing everyone at the end of the rite, in his "Urbi et
Orbi" message to the city of Rome
and the world, the Pope said that " Every Christian relives the experience
of Mary Magdalene. It involves an encounter which changes our lives: the
encounter with a unique Man who lets us experience all God's goodness and
truth, who frees us from evil not in a superficial and fleeting way, but sets
us free radically, heals us completely and restores our dignity. This is why
Mary Magdalene calls Jesus "my hope": he was the one who allowed her to be
reborn, who gave her a new future, a life of goodness and freedom from evil. "Christ
my hope" means that all my yearnings for goodness find in him a real
possibility of fulfilment: with him I can hope for a life that is good, full
and eternal, for God himself has drawn near to us, even sharing our humanity. "
"But
Mary Magdalene, like the other disciples, was to see Jesus rejected by the
leaders of the people, arrested, scourged, condemned to death and crucified. It must have been unbearable to see
Goodness in person subjected to human malice, truth derided by falsehood, mercy
abused by vengeance. With Jesus' death, the hope of all those who had put their
trust in him seemed doomed. But that faith never completely failed: especially
in the heart of the Virgin Mary, Jesus' Mother, its flame burned even in the
dark of night. In this world, hope can not avoid confronting the harshness of
evil. It is not thwarted by the wall of death alone, but even more by the barbs
of envy and pride, falsehood and violence. Jesus passed through this mortal
mesh in order to open a path to the kingdom of life. For a moment
Jesus seemed vanquished: darkness had invaded the land, the silence of God was
complete, hope a seemingly empty word".
"If
Jesus is risen, then - and only then - has something truly new happened,
something that changes the state of humanity and the world. Then he, Jesus, is someone in whom we can
put absolute trust; we can put our trust not only in his message but in Jesus
himself, for the Risen One does not belong to the past, but is present today,
alive. Christ is hope and comfort in a particular way for those Christian
communities suffering most for their faith on account of discrimination and
persecution. And he is present as a force of hope through his Church, which is
close to all human situations of suffering and injustice.. "
"May
the risen Christ grant hope to the Middle East and enable all the ethnic,
cultural and religious groups in that region to work together to advance the
common good and respect for human rights. Particularly in Syria, may
there be an end to bloodshed and an immediate commitment to the path of
respect, dialogue and reconciliation, as called for by the international
community. May the many refugees from that country who are in need of
humanitarian assistance find the acceptance and solidarity capable of relieving
their dreadful sufferings. May the paschal victory encourage the Iraqi people
to spare no effort in pursuing the path of stability and development. In the Holy Land, may Israelis and Palestinians courageously
take up anew the peace process".
"May
the Lord, the victor over evil and death, sustain the Christian communities of
the African continent; may he grant them hope in facing their difficulties, and
make them peacemakers and agents of development in the societies to which they
belong."
"May
the risen Jesus comfort the suffering populations of the Horn of Africa and
favour their reconciliation; may he help the Great Lakes Region,
Sudan and South
Sudan, and grant their inhabitants the power of forgiveness. In Mali, now
experiencing delicate political developments, may the glorious Christ grant
peace and stability. To Nigeria,
which in recent times has experienced savage terrorist attacks, may the joy of
Easter grant the strength needed to take up anew the building of a society
which is peaceful and respectful of the religious freedom of its citizens".
At
the end of the message and before imparting the blessing Urbi et Orbi blessing,
Benedict XVI addressed Easter greetings in 65 languages, including Russian,
Mongolian, Kazakh, Georgian, Turkish, Arabic, Hebrew, Aramaic, Armenian, Hindi,
Tamil, Malayalam, Bengali, Burmese, Urdu, Chinese, Japanese, Korean,
Vietnamese, Sinhalese, Thai, Indonesian, Philippine, and Cambodian.