Dear Parishioners and Friends of St. Mary’s of the Lake:

“The women bring spices tothe tomb, but they fear that their journey is in vain, since a large stone bars the entrance to the sepulcher. The journey of those women is also our own journey; it resembles the journey of salvation that we have made. At times, it seems that everything comes up against a stone: the beauty of creation against the tragedy of

sin; liberation from slavery against infidelity to the covenant; the promises of the prophets against the listless indifference of the people. So too, in the history of the Church and in our own personal history. It seems that the steps we take nevertake us to the goal...

Today however we see that our journey is not in vain; it does not come up against a tombstone. A single phrase astounds the woman & changes history: ‘Why do you seek the living among the dead?’ (Lk 24:5). Why do you think that everything is hopeless, that no one can take away your own tombstones? Why do you give into resignation or failure? Easter, brothers & sisters, is the feast of tombstones taken away, rocks rolled aside. God takes away even the hardest stones against which our hopes & expectations crash: death, sin, fear, worldliness. Human history does not end before atombstone, because today it encounters the ‘living stone’ (cf.1 Pet 2:4), the risen Jesus. We, as Church, are built on him, and, even when we grow disheartened and tempted to judge everything in the light of our failures, He comes to make all things new, to overturn our every disappointment. Each of us is called tonight to rediscover in the Risen Christ the one who rolls back from our heart the heaviest of stones. So let us first ask: What is the stone that I need to remove, what is the name of this stone?

Often what blocks hope is the stone of discouragement. Once we start thinking that everything is going badly and that thingscan’t get worse, we lose heart and come to believe that deathis stronger than life. We become cynical, negative and despondent. Stone upon stone, we build within ourselves a monument to our own dissatisfaction: the sepulcher of hope. Life becomes a succession of complaints and we grow sick in spirit. A kind of tomb psychology takes over: everything ends there, with no hope of emerging alive. But at that moment, we hear once more the insistent question of Easter: Why do you seek the living among the dead? The Lord is not to be found inresignation. He is risen; He is not there. Don’t seek himwhere you will never find him: He is not the God of the dead but of the living (cf. Mk 22:32). Do not bury hope!” (TO BE CONTINUED)

(Excerpt from Pope Francis’ Homily on Easter Vigil 2019)