#herosefromdeath

Christ rose from death to give every person the opportunity to rise from death. Through his resurrection he has filled our spirits with everlasting life so that after our bodily death we may continue to live. We find ourselves in the middle of the week of Christ's Easter as a Church. In today's papal audience, Francis the bishop of Rome said, "The resurrection was not born in the Church but the Church was born in the resurrection". We all have life because Christ has risen from the death. In our present moment, many realities continue to witness to Christ's Resurrection.

This most special week, God in his mercy has allowed me to see many moments that witness to the Lord's victory over death. Christ is risen in the tens of thousands of teenagers who came with joy to meet the pope and to be reaffirmed in the faith. Christ is risen in my thirteen Jesuit classmates who have accepted with joy the ordination to the diaconate yesterday. Christ is risen in the forty fathers from my congregation's Italian province who are meeting to discuss ways to renew their communities and choose a new superior. Christ is risen in the thousands of families that are coming to Rome these days to visit this city and enjoy its great weather, in the children playing in the parks, in the older people taking walks, in that desire that burns in my heart to shine the light of Hope and to share what I've received.

The Risen Christ is suddenly recognizable. As he presents himself to me in calling my name, in proclaiming God's message, in the breaking of the bread, he invites me to join him in this Easter announcement. God is calling me right now to witness to everyone around me in every word I say, in every action I take, in every decision I make that Jesus Christ rose from death and lives. My life is called to proclaim that "The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!".

And so let us pray Christ the Pilgrim who walks next to us every day at work, at school, at home, in our neighborhood: "Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is nearly over". Stay with us always.