#PopeFrancis celebrates Easter Day Mass "go home today and repeat: Christ is Risen." at #Vatican - FULL Video + Homily

Vatican City (Text shared from AsiaNews) - At 10 o'clock this morning, Pope Francis presided over the liturgy of the Sunday of the resurrection of the Lord. several cardinals and priests concelebrated with him, along with at least 60 thousand faithful and pilgrims. After the gospel, proclaimed also  in Greek no homily was scheduled. Instead, Pope Francis gave a speech off the cuff, which we quote in its integral way.

Today the Church repeats, sings, shouts, "Jesus is risen!". But why? Peter, John, the women went to the tomb and it was empty, he was not there. They went with their hearts closed by sadness, the sadness of defeat: the Master, their Master, the one they loved so much had been executed, had died. And you do not come back from the dead. This is defeat, this is the path of defeat, the road to the tomb. But the angel said to them: "He is not here, he is risen." It is the first announcement: "He is Risen." And then the confusion, closed the heart, the apparitions. But the disciples remain closed all day in the Cenacle, because they were afraid the same would happen to them as had befallen Jesus. And the Church does not cease to tell of our defeats, our closed and fearful hearts:  "Stop, The Lord is risen." But if the Lord is risen, why are these things happening? Why are there so many unfortunate things happening, diseases, human trafficking,  the exploitation of people, wars, destruction, mutilation, revenge and hatred? But where is the Lord? Yesterday I phoned this young  man with a serious disease, a well-educated young man, an engineer and talking, to give him a sign of faith, I told him: "There is no explanations for what is happening to you. Look at Jesus on the Cross, God did this with his Son, and there is no other explanation. " And he replied: "Yes, but He asked his Son and His Son said yes. I was not asked if I wanted it. " This moves us, none of us are asked: "Are you happy with what is happening in the world? Are you willing to carry on this cross? ". And the cross goes on, and faith in Jesus comes down. Today, the Church continues to say: "Stop, Jesus is risen." And this is not a fantasy, the Resurrection of Christ is not a party with many flowers. This is nice, but this is not it; It is the mystery of the rejected stone that ends up being the foundation of our existence. Christ is risen, this is what it means. In this culture of waste where what is not needed is thrown away, discarded, the stone - Jesus - is discarded and is the source of life. And we too, pebbles on the ground, in this land of pain, tragedy, with faith in the Risen Christ we have a sense among many calamities. The sense to look beyond the and say, "Look there is a wall; there is a horizon, there life, there is joy, there is the cross with this ambivalence. Look ahead, do not close yourself. You pebble, you have a meaning in life because you are a pebble of that stone, the stone that the wickedness of Sin has dropped. " What about the Church today in front of so many tragedies? This simply. The rejected stone is not really discarded. The pebbles that believe and stick to that Stone are not discarded, they make sense and the Church repeats this sentiment from the bottom of its heart: "Christ is risen." Let's think a bit ', each of us think, to everyday problems, diseases we have experienced or that someone of our relatives; think of wars, human tragedies and, simply, in a humble voice, not flowery, just before God, before we say "I do not know how this will go, but I'm sure that Christ is Risen, and I'd bet on that. " Brothers and sisters, this is what I wanted to say to you, go home today and repeat: Christ is Risen.