Easter Sunday
April 1st 2018
Gospel: Mark 16,1-8
Homily of the Pontiff Samuel
On the first day after Saturday, Christ overcame death and gave us Life again. «Don’t be afraid»(Mc 16,6a), the young man said at that time, just as many times John Paul II has repeated in these our times on the eve of the new millennium. Jesus, the Man God, has won (2Tm 1,10). Have no fear. And on His example, now as then, this is what everyone is called to do: to win. To overcome fear. To overcome darkness. To overcome anguish. To overcome despair. To overcome death, every death, so to live true Life.
The Father has chosen this Land of Love so to make His sons win, and for them to rise for eternity. Jesus said at that time: « I shall go, but where I’m going you cannot come now. When I have prepared a place for you, I will return» (Gv 14,2-3). In this Holy Place, God has established His Abode (Ap 21,3) to welcome His sons and all men and women of goodwill, so to make them live, already from now, the promised Kingdom, while waiting for everything to be definitively fulfilled. This is the Treasure, hidden from the scholars of the world (Mt 13,44), that the Father has given to all peacemakers (Mt 5,9), so that His peace may triumph in the hearts of His sons and in all those animated by goodwill that want to live and rise to new Life. In this Land of Love, the Spirit of the Risen Christ lives and guides His sons to the eternal resurrection, which goes through the annihilation of their “self” so to leave room in their heart to the true God and His teachings.
Those who live this Land of Love are called to annul every sentiment that doesn’t lead to God: the sense of revenge, that of rebellion and that of disavowal. Whoever really wants to live Christ must renounce to himself (Mt 16,24; Mc 8,34; Lc 9,23) and leave his “self” nailed to the Cross, so to attain new Life in Christ, looking at that Cross that enlightens the world, source of Light, source of Life, so to co-participate with a leading role to salvation, to co-participate with the Risen Christ in leading Christianity to the victory and triumph in this end times. This Mother Land, a tangible sign of the resurrection of God’s sons, will lead to the resurrection of this arid and lost humanity, fallen prey to a deep, lethal, mortal and total sleep, which many have wanted and caused with their actions and words; and still continue to cause.
Who, on this Easter eve, denies the Christian teachings by suggesting that hell doesn’t exist and that sinful souls just disappear, as the Roman pontiff said, is disowning Jesus and His Truth, is denying the revelation of Jesus (Mt 5,22; 18,8-9; 25,41; Mc 9,43-47; Lc 3,17; 12,5) and consequently His Resurrection. Here is the death of hearts and the death of souls, that many want to cause by annulling the profound and actual meaning of Christ’s Resurrection.
«Let the dead bury their dead» (Lc 9,60), Jesus said. Follow the One who has risen. Leave all what is death. Christ has overcome death and has given us true Life. Don’t waste time continually thinking and following who is dead in soul and is a bearer of death. Live. Live Christ, the One who overcame death and gave us true Life. To love Christ means to leave our old life, so to rediscover it, new and renewed, in the One who has risen (Mt 16,25b; Mc 8,35b; Lc 9,24b), in the One who has nailed death on the wood of the Cross and has flown to Heaven. This today is the Easter of Resurrection of God’s sons: to be alive and no longer subjugated to a will that is not divine but that comes from the enemy of God and of His sons.
«Be free. Live Christ, the One who has risen. Live His authentic teachings».
Whoever wants to live the Easter of Christ, has to embody even more the sentiments of Jesus, so to bring back to the centre His brotherhood and His Love, and to become a true worshiper, in Spirit and Truth (Gv 4,23). «Freedom will make us free. The freedom that Christ gives, allows us to be sons and brothers. Do not live again as slaves of a world that does not love Christ and His sons. Christ died on the Cross to free His sons from the heavy yoke that the holders of the human and religious power, have placed on God’s children». Baby Jesus has descended to this Land of Love to make free God’s sons from the slavery deceitfully imposed by those who, in the name of an apparent freedom, in reality are denying it, making God’s sons live in a condition of slavery and of disaffection, of darkness and total indifference, of a live and true apathy.
Jesus in His humility and His constancy, with His loving obedience to the Father, has overcome death and the world. These are the virtues of every Christian. Those who do not live the Christian spirit, are animated by an inner rebellion, on the example of the one who from the beginning rebelled against God the Father Almighty.
Christ and Mary, in their humility and in their live and total obedience, have won against the spirit of rebellion, which is alive in the evil one and his children. Mary has overcome the evil one (Gen 3,15). And the sons of Mary, nourished by Her live Spirit, are called today to overcome that evil spirit.
Whoever wants to win, is to look to Mary, to Her example. Mary has never rebelled against the Father. Mary, at the foot of that Cross, has won together with Her Son, although in suffering. Who claimed that Mary, at the foot of the Cross, has rebelled against God, saying that Mary would have said in Her Heart: «Lies! I have been deceived», is not from God; he cannot be from God. He cannot be animated by the Spirit that proceeds from the Father and the Son. This has been affirmed by the Roman pontiff in one of his public homilies. He also said, in another homily, that even the rebellion against God is a prayer, and also that the «Mystery» of Jesus on the Cross would be this: «does Jesus blaspheme when he complains: “Father, why have you forsaken me”?» (Mt 27,46; Mc 15,34). The Mystery of the Cross and Resurrection is not this. This so called “mystery” does not belong to God and His sons. These teachings are anti-Christian. A pontiff who says to be Christian cannot affirm this. And even if an error could be human, persevering in error is certainly diabolical. It is useless in making believe to honour the Lord only in words, if one doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ in heart. Not those who say: “Lord, Lord” will resurrect, but those who teach and do the Lord’s will (Mt 7,21), by teaching to remain faithful to the Lord, to lovingly obey the Lord, as Mary (Lc 1,46-48) always did, even at the foot of the Cross, without ever rebelling against the Lord (Gv 19,25).
The sacrifice of Jesus and the Sacrifice of Mary cannot be soiled by those who want to remove the divinity of Jesus and of His Mother from the hearts of God’s sons. The mystery of Easter is not the mystery of doubt, of blasphemy or rebellion. The Mystery of Easter of Jesus and Mary, is the Mystery of faithfulness, of loving obedience, of total confidence in the Father’s will that leads to the victory (Lc 1,38; Lc 23,46). Victory is achieved only by means of a total abandonment to the Father’s will, in loyalty and in loving obedience. Not by doubt and rebellion against God. And not by putting these feelings in the hearts of those who listen in good faith.
Having said this, we have to well understand that the Mystery of Easter must also help Christians to approach and fully understand the divinity and the bond that binds Jesus and Mary, to explain that the Sacrifice of the Son is closely related and linked to that of the Mother.
There cannot be Easter without understanding the Sacrifice of Mary united with that of Her Son. Those who have not been able to give equal importance to the Sacrifice of Mary, will remain in their foolishness. Mary lived the live, continuous and palpitating Mass of Her Son on Golgotha, drinking together with Him that chalice, completely, up to the last drop, totally co‑participating with the Son’s Sacrifice of Redemption. Two hearts, united in the one only Spirit that comes from the Father’s Heart.
This is the Easter of God’s sons, the true and great feast of the true sons of God, of those who believe, love and live for Him, the One who is; for Him the One who has risen, and lives and makes us live for eternity. «Christ has risen, hallelujah». «He has truly risen, hallelujah, hallelujah». This is the hymn of joy of God’s sons. This is the holy greeting that on this day, God’s sons wish each other, now as then. «Are you looking for Jesus, the One who has risen? Do not look among the dead for someone who is alive. Go, He precedes you» (Mt 28,5-7; Mc 16,6-7; Lc 24,5-6; ) , it was said at that time.
Now, in these our times, I say: «Come. Come and see the place that Jesus has prepared. Come and see the New Jerusalem, the God’s dwelling place among men (Ap 21,2-3). The Spirit of the Son of God awaits you, to resurrect you right from now to new life, to make you live the true Life that the Father in this Holy Place has wanted to give to all His faithful sons and to all the men and women of goodwill. This is Easter. This is the path that leads us to the eternal Easter».
From this Holy Mountain, the Christian resurgence has started again. In this end time given to humanity, whoever wants, can come to worship God in Spirit and Truth (Gv 4,23-24), to live and know the whole Truth, and to be nourished by the live action of the Holy Spirit, to be renewed and be found worthy to receive His look. And so be it.
