“Surrexit Dominus de sepulcro qui pro nobis pependit in ligno”
“The Lord is risen from the tomb, who for our sakes hung upon the Cross” Hallelujah!
The Easter proclamation resounds festively: Christ is risen, is truly risen! He who “suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried,” Jesus, the Son of God born of the Virgin Mary, “rose on the third day according to the Scriptures.”
This proclamation is the foundation of humanity’s hope, a hope that resists every human project to thwart or extinguish it in human hearts. By dying Jesus broke and conquered the sad and seemingly inexorable accounting of death by eradicating its poisonous root forever.
“Peace be with you!” (Jn 20:19).
This is the Risen One’s first greeting to the disciples; a greeting he repeats today to the whole world. All the timelier in this time where from the land trodden by the feet of Jesus and Mary to the lands of Europe, we hear the echoes of death and also plans of further and more disastrous conflicts resound. May there be peace in the hearts of those who bear the responsibility for building the common good nationally and internationally, this is what we ask our Risen Lord for at this moment in history. For all, especially for those who live in their flesh and their daily lives the burden of armed conflict, we proclaim today the hope of that peace which, in order to be authentic and lasting must be founded on the solid pillars of justice and truth since “Peace on Earth—which man throughout the ages has so longed for and sought after—can never be established, never guaranteed, except by the diligent observance of the divinely established order.” (Pacem in Terris, n. 1).
May Mary, the first tabernacle in history and the first and silent witness of Easter joy give each of us personally and our religious family the grace to sing with our lives her own “Magnificat” of praise and thanksgiving.
Let us ask Mary that, as she led us by the hand in the days of passion, she may continue to guide our steps in this time of spiritual joy. Helping to make each of us the model of the reception of that Word. Moreover, with the same Word meditated upon and incarnated in our lives, we will be able to nourish, as consecrated to Mary, the service of faith and charity toward our brothers and sisters whom the Lord entrusts to us.
P. Immacolato M. Acquali
Minister General of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate
0 Comments