- H.E. Alberto Clementino Vaquina, Prime Minister of the Republic of Mozambique
- Ten bishops of the Tuscany region on ad-limina visit, resuming the series of current ad-limina visits
by the Italian bishops that had begun under Beneidct XVI. The grop today was led by Cardinal Giuseppe Betori,
Archbishop of Florence.
- Members of the US-based Papal Foundation, which raises funds for specific charities worldwide chosen
by the Pope. This is their annual visit to present funds gathered during the preceding year and a report
on what they have done. The current chairman of the Foundation is Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Archbishop of
Pope Benedict XVI offered wide-ranging post-Easter reflections in his catechesis at the General Audience in St. Peter's Square on Wednesday in the Octave of Easter. He flew to the Vatican from Castel Gandolfo where he was taking his post-Holy Week rest.
Dear brothers and sisters,
After the solemn celebrations of Easter, our meeting today is pervaded with spiritual joy. Even if the skies are grey, we carry in our hearts the joy of Easter, the certainty of the Resurrection of Christ who triumphed definitively over sin and death.
First of all, I renew to each of you a heartfelt Easter wish: In all homes and in all hearts may the joyous announcement of the Resurrection of Christ resound in every heart for a rebirth of hope.
In this catechesis, I wish to show the transformation that Jesus's Pasch caused in his disciples. Let us start from the evening after the Resurrection. The disciples were locked in their homes for fear of the Jews (cfr Jn 20,19).
Fear grips their heart and keeps them from going forth to meet others, to meet life itself. The Master is no longer around. The remembrance of his Passion nourishes their uncertainty. But Jesus has his people at heart and is about to fulfill the promise that he had made to them during the Last Supper: "I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you" (Jn 14,18), and he says that to us, too, even in grey times: "I will not leave you orphans".
This situation of anxiety among the disciples changes radically with the arrival of Jesus. He passes through the closed doors, he is in their midst, and reassuringly wishes them peace: "Peace be with you" (Jn 20,19b).
It is a common greeting which now acquires a new meaning because it results in an interior change: It is the Easter greeting, which causes the disciples to overcome all their fears.
The peace that Jesus brings is the gift of salvation that he had promised his disciples during his farewell: "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid" (Jn 14,27).
On this day of Resurrection, he gives peace in fullness and it becomes for the community a source of joy, certainty of victory, security in reliance upon God. "Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not be afraid" (Jn 14,1), he tells us, as well.
After this greeting, Jesus shows his disciples the wounds on his hands and his side (cfr Jn 20,20), a sign of what had happened and which would never be cancelled: his glorious humanity remains 'wounded'.
This gesture has the purpose of confirming the new reality of the Resurrection: The Christ who is now among his people is a real person, the same Jesus who three days earlier had been nailed to the Cross.
Thus it is that in the dazzling light of Easter, in the meeting with the Risen One, the disciples grasp the salvific significance of his passion and death. Therefore, they go from sorrow and fear to joy.
Sorrow and Jesus's wounds themselves become a source of joy. This joy arises in their hearts because they 'saw the Lord' (Jn 20,20). He says to them once more: "Peace be with you" (v 21).
It is evident that from now on, ti is no longer just a greeting. It is a gift, a gift that the Risen One wishes to make to his friends, but at the same time it is also a mandate: This peace, acquired by Christ with his blood, is for them but also for everyone, and the disciples should bring it to the whole world.
Indeed, he adds: "As the Father has sent me, so I send you" (ibid.). The risen Jesus has returned among his disciples in order to send them out. He has completed his work in the world - now it falls on them to sow the faith in the hearts of men so that the Father may be known and loved, and bring together all his children who are dispersed.
But Jesus knows that there is still fear among his people, that there will always be fear. That is why he performs the gesture of breathing on them, regenerating them in his Spirit (cfr Jn 20,22). This gesture is the sign of the new creation.
With the gift of the Spirit that comes from the risen Christ, a new world begins. Sending off the disciples on mission inaugurates the journey through the world of the people of the New Covenant, people who believe in him and in his work of salvation, people who will testify to the truth of the Resurrection.
This novelty of a new life that does not die, which is brought by Easter, is to be disseminated everywhere, so that the thorns of sin that wound the heart of man can be replaced by the seeds of Grace, of the presence of God, and his love which triumphs over sin and death.
Dear friends, even today, the Risen One enters our homes and hearts, even if at times the doors are closed. He enters to give us joy and peace, life and hope, gifts that we need for our human and spiritual rebirth.
Only he can turn away that sepulchral stone that man often places on his own feelings, his own relationships, his own behaviors - stones that ratify death, divisions, enmities, rancors, envy, suspicions, indifference.
Only he, the Living One, can give meaning to existence and can allow those who are tried and sad, disheartened and devoid of hope to carry on.
It was the experience of the two disciples who on Easter day were walking from Jerusalem towards Emmaus (cfr Lk 24,13-35). They were talking about Jesus, but their 'sad faces' (cfr v 17) expressed their dashed hopes, uncertainty and melancholy.
They had left their homes to follow Jesus and his friends, and they had discovered a new reality in which forgiveness and love were no longer just words but touched concretely on existence. Jesus of Nazareth had made everything new, he had transformed their life. But now he was dead and everything seemed over.
Suddenly, however, it was no longer two but three persons who were walking together. Jesus had come alongside the two disciples and was walking with them, but they were incapable of recognizing him.
Of course, they had already heard the rumors of his Resurrection, and in fact, referred to these: "Some women from our group, however, have astounded us: they were at the tomb early in the morning and did not find his body; they came back and reported that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who announced that he was alive" (vv 22-23).
And yet all this was not enough to convince them because "him they did not see" (v. 24) [although they went to the tomb to see for themselves].
Thus Jesus, patiently, "beginning with Moses and all the prophets, interpreted to them what referred to him in all the scriptures" (v 27). The Risen One explained Sacred Scripture to the disciples, offering them the fundamental key to reading them, namely, he himself and his Paschal mystery. It is he to whom the Scriptures are a testimonial (cfr Jn 4,39-37).
The sense of everything, of the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms, suddenly opened up and became clear to their eyes. Jesus had opened their minds to the intelligence of the Scriptures (cfr Lk 24,45).
Meanwhile, they had reached the village, probably the home of one of the two disciples. Their unknown travelling companion "gave the impression that he was going on farther" (v 28), but he stayed because they urged him, “Stay with us".
"While he was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them" (v 30). The reference to the gestures by Jesus at the Last Supper is evident. "With that, their eyes were opened and they recognized him" (v 31)
The presence of Jesus, first with his words, and then in the act of breaking bread, made it possible for the disciples to recognize him, and they could feel anew what they had already felt when they were walking with him: “Were not our hearts burning [within us] while he spoke to us on the way and opened the scriptures to us?” (v 32).
This episode shows us two 'privileged' places where we can meet the Risen One who transforms our life: listening to the Word, in communion with Christ, and breaking the Bread. Two 'places' profoundly united to each other because "Word and Eucharist belong to each other so intimately that one cannot be understood without the other: the Word of God sacramentally becomes flesh in the Eucharistic event" (Post-Synodal Apost. Exhort, Verbum Domini, 54-55).
After the meeting in Emmaus, the two disciples "set out at once and returned to Jerusalem where they found gathered together the eleven and those with them who were saying, 'The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!'" (vv 33-34).
In Jerusalem, they listened to the news of Jesus's resurrection, and in turn, they recounted their own experience, inflamed with love for the Risen One, who had opened their hearts to an uncontainable joy.
They were, as St. Peter would say, given "a new birth to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" (cfr 1Pt 1,3). In fact, the enthusiasm for the faith is reborn in them, their love for the community, the need to communicate the Good News.
The Master has risen and with him, all of life is resurrected. To testify to this event becomes for them an irrepressible need.
Dear friends, may Eastertime be for all of us the right occasion to rediscover with joy and enthusiasm the springs of faith, the presence of the Risen One among us.
It means fulfilling the same itinerary as Jesus caused the two disciples at Emmaus to follow - through the rediscovery of the Word of God and of the Eucharist. That is, to go with the Lord and allow our eyes to be opened to the true meaning of Scripture and of his presence in breaking the bread.
Thus, the culmination of the journey, then as now, is Eucharistic Communion. In Communion, Jesus nourishes us with his Body and Blood, to be present in our lives, to make us new, inspired by the power of the Holy Spirit.
In conclusion, the experience of the disciples invites us to reflect on the meaning of Easter for us. Let us allow ourselves to meet the risen Jesus. Alive and real, he is always present among us, he walks with us to guide our lives, to open our eyes.
Let us trust the Risen One who has the power to give life, to make us be reborn as children of God, able to believe and to love. Faith in him transforms our life, liberates it of fear, gives firm hope, inspires it with that which gives full meaning to existence - the love of God. Thank you.