Pope Leo XIV centered his homily during the Easter Vigil celebrated in St. Peter’s Basilica on Christ’s victory over sin and death as the foundation of Christian hope, emphasizing that the Resurrection is not only an event of the past, but a living force that transforms history and the lives of the faithful. In a message marked by a missionary tone, the Pontiff called Christians to be witnesses of the Risen One in a world wounded by fear, division, and war, reminding that only grace can tear down the “stones” that close man in on himself and open paths of peace, unity, and new life.
We leave the complete homily below:
«This holy night […] expels hatred, brings concord, subdues the powerful» (Easter Proclamation).
Thus, dear brothers and sisters, the deacon, at the beginning of this celebration, has praised the light of the Risen Christ, symbolized in the Paschal Candle. From this single Candle we have all lit our lights and, carrying each one a small flame taken from the same fire, we have illuminated this great basilica. It is the sign of the paschal light, which unites us in the Church as lamps for the world. To the deacon’s announcement we have responded “amen,” affirming our commitment to embrace this mission, and in a little while we will repeat our “yes” by renewing our baptismal promises.
Dear brothers, this is a Vigil full of light, the oldest in the Christian tradition, called the “mother of all vigils.” In it we relive the memorial of the Lord’s victory over death and hell. We do so after having journeyed, in recent days, as in a single great celebration, through the mysteries of the Passion of the God made man for us “man of sorrows” (Is 53,3), “despised and rejected by men” (ibid.), tortured and crucified.
Is there a greater charity, a more total gratuity? The Risen One is the same Creator of the universe who, just as in the dawn of history he gave us existence from nothing, so also on the cross, to show us his boundless love, has given us life.
Thus the first reading has reminded us, with the account of the origins. In the beginning, God created heaven and earth (cf. Gn 1,1), bringing forth the cosmos from chaos, harmony from disorder, and entrusting to us, made in his image and likeness, the task of being his custodians. And even when, with sin, man did not correspond to that plan, the Lord did not abandon him, but revealed to him in an even more surprising way, in forgiveness, his merciful face.
This “holy night,” then, sinks its roots also where the first failure of humanity was consummated, and extends through the centuries as a path of reconciliation and grace.
From that path, the liturgy has proposed some stages to us through the sacred texts we have heard. It has reminded us how God stayed the hand of Abraham, ready to sacrifice his son Isaac, to indicate to us that he does not want our death, but rather that we consecrate ourselves to being, in his hands, living members of a lineage of the saved (cf. Gn 22,11-12.15-18). Likewise, it has invited us to reflect on how the Lord freed the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, making the sea, a place of death and insurmountable obstacle, the gateway to the beginning of a new and free life. And the same message has echoed like an echo in the words of the prophets, in which we have heard the praises of the Lord as spouse who calls and gathers (cf. Is 54,5-7), fountain that quenches, water that fertilizes (cf. Is 55,1.10), light that shows the way of peace (cf. Ba 3,14), Spirit that transforms and renews the heart (Ez 36,26).
In all these moments of the history of salvation we have seen how God, in the face of the hardness of sin that divides and kills, responds with the power of love that unites and restores life. We have evoked them together, interspersing the narrative with psalms and prayers, to remind ourselves that, through Christ’s Passover, “buried with him in death […] we too might walk in newness of life […] dead to sin and living to God in Christ Jesus” (Rm 6,4-11), consecrated in Baptism to the love of the Father, united in the communion of saints, made by grace living stones for the building of his Kingdom (cf. 1 P 2,4-5).
In the light of all this we read the account of the Resurrection, which we have heard in the Gospel according to St. Matthew. On Easter morning, the women, overcoming pain and fear, set out on their way. They wanted to go to Jesus’ tomb. They expected to find it sealed, with a large stone at the entrance and soldiers standing guard. This is sin: a very heavy barrier that encloses us and separates us from God, trying to kill in us his words of hope. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, however, were not intimidated. They went to the tomb and, thanks to their faith and love, were the first witnesses of the Resurrection. In the earthquake and in the angel, seated upon the rolled-back stone, they saw the power of God’s love, stronger than any power of evil, capable of “expelling hatred” and of “subduing the powerful.” Man can kill the body, but the life of the God of love is eternal life, it goes beyond death and no tomb can imprison it. Thus, the Crucified reigned from the cross, the angel sat upon the stone, and the living Jesus appeared before them saying: “Rejoice” (Mt 28,9).
This too, dear brothers, is our message to the world today, the encounter of which we want to bear witness, with words of faith and works of charity, singing with our lives the “alleluia” that we proclaim with our lips (cf. St. Augustine, Sermon 256, 1). Just as the women ran to announce it to the brothers, we too want to set out this night, from this basilica, to bring to all the good news that Jesus is risen and that, with his strength, risen with him, we too can give life to a new world, of peace and unity, as “many men and one man only; many Christians and one Christ only” (St. Augustine, Commentary on the Psalms 127,3).
To this mission are consecrated the brothers and sisters who, present here, coming from various parts of the world, will soon receive Baptism. After the long journey of the catechumenate, today they are reborn in Christ to be new creatures (cf. 2 Co 5,17), witnesses of the Gospel. For them, and for all of us, we repeat what St. Augustine said to the Christians of his time: “Proclaim Christ; sow […]. Scatter the Gospel; what you have conceived in your heart” (Sermon 116, 7).
Brothers and sisters, there are no lack of tombs to open in our days either, and often the stones that close them are so heavy and so well guarded that they seem immovable. Some weigh on man’s heart, like distrust, fear, selfishness, and resentment; others, consequence of the first, break the bonds between us, like war, injustice, and isolation between peoples and nations. Let us not allow them to paralyze us! Many men and women, through the centuries, with God’s help, have removed them, perhaps with great effort, sometimes at the cost of their lives, but with fruits of good from which we still benefit today. They are not unattainable figures, but people like us who, strengthened by the grace of the Risen One, in charity and truth, had the courage to speak, as the apostle Peter says, with “words of God” (1 P 4,11) and to act “as one who receives that power from God, so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ” (ibid.).
Let us be inspired by their example and, on this Holy Night, make their commitment our own, so that everywhere and always, in the world, the paschal gifts of concord and peace may grow and flourish.