“Tombstones” in the heart –

VATICAN CITY (EFE).— In the homily of the Easter Vigil mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Francis made reference “to the fact that sometimes we feel that a tombstone has been placed heavily at the entrance to our hearts.” , suffocating life, extinguishing trust, locking ourselves in the tomb of fears and bitterness.”

The Pope called them the “death pitfalls” and said that “they are all the experiences and situations that rob us of the enthusiasm and strength to move forward.”

And among them he cited “the deaths of our loved ones, which leave voids in us that are impossible to fill; in failures”, “the walls of selfishness and indifference, which repel the commitment to build cities and societies that are more just and dignified for man” and “all the longings for peace broken by the cruelty of hatred and the ferocity of war”.

Then he assured that “Jesus is our Easter, the one who makes us pass from darkness to light, who has joined us forever and saves us from the abysses of sin and death, drawing us towards the luminous impetus of forgiveness and of eternal life.

With a good voice, following he decided at the last minute the day before yesterday not to go to the Colosseum for the Via Crucis, the Pope addressed the “peoples destroyed by evil and hit by injustice, peoples without land, peoples who are martyrs” so that they “away” “Tonight the singers of despair.”

The ceremony, one of the longest in the tradition and loaded with symbolism, began with the blessing of the fire in the atrium of the basilica and the lighting of the paschal candle. The Pope then marked the candle with the inscription of the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet—alpha and omega—which symbolize that God is the beginning and the end in a totally dark room.

Afterwards, the traditional procession took place with the entry of the concelebrants in total silence and in the dark and with only the candles lit to represent the absence of light following the death of Jesus Christ.

Only following the deacon pronounced the phrase “Lumen Christi” (The Light of Christ) three times did the basilica lights turn on and the mass began before 6,000 faithful.

This long ceremony follows the tradition of the early years of the Church, that of the catechumens, the adults who aspired to convert to Christianity and, therefore, the blessing of water was also celebrated, and Francis baptized eight adults of different nationalities: four Italians, two Koreans, one Japanese and one Albanian.

During this Vatican Holy Week, it was not possible to enjoy the presence behind the altar of the imposing baldachin of Saint Peter by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, as it remains covered, as it is undergoing restoration in view of next year’s Jubilee.

The Pope decided late Friday not to attend the Via Crucis in the Colosseum to “safeguard his health,” since in recent days he had been suffering from respiratory problems, but both yesterday’s ceremony and today’s Resurrection Mass were confirmed.