#Easter2013inrome

Alleluia! Sin did not destroy God’s plan for humanity but only changed the way to carry out this divine plan: through the death and resurrection of the Most Glorious Redeemer:

Happy Easter to everyone! Let us give thanks to our Father the Almighty God in Heaven for the resurrection of his Son Jesus Christ through which all of us are still alive. This Easter, in the liturgical celebrations, I truly felt that I have my life because Jesus Christ died for me. Through his death and resurrection He freed me from my sins and got me eternal life.

Many people in Rome celebrated Easter with so much joy and with zeal for the Lord. The thousands of churches in the city had the Easter rites. I live on one of the seven Roman hills, a small one, which has four Basilicas in a space of less than a mile. I can pass walk in front of each one in ten minutes, that’s how close they are to one another. Well, all four of these Basilicas had liturgical celebrations on Holy Week and most importantly today on Easter Sunday.

Romans today are still finding that the Risen Jesus Christ is the center of the Church, as Pope Francis has repeatedly said from the beginning of his wonderful pontificate. With the gift of faith many are seeing and feeling that the Risen Lord is truly present in the beautiful religious rites in the churches of the Catholic Church, especially the Mass. After many centuries, the Church continues to preach to the city of Rome and to the world that Christ died for love of everyone but three days later, on a Sunday like today, He rose from death.

Today’s message of the Church is that Christ descended into the lowest parts of the underworld after his death and before his resurrection. The Church is proclaiming today that in the same way Christ is willing to go into the darkest parts of our lives to destroy our sins and to heal our sufferings, to fill us all with his everlasting life and his infinite joy. The Church and her members are called to witness until the end of times that the only answer that will give meaning to our lives is that the Risen Christ is the center of the life of each person. So let us live every moment of our lives in a way that allows the Risen Son of God to be the center of all we are.