In his Easter Sunday homily, Pope Francis said: “The Church never ceases to say, faced with our defeats, our closed and fearful hearts, ‘Stop, the Lord is risen’. Nobody asks us: ‘But, are you happy with all that’s happening in the world?’ Are you willing to go forward, carrying a cross, as Jesus did?

“In this culture of waste what is not needed is thrown away, discarded. That stone – Jesus – is discarded and is the source of life. And we too, pebbles on the ground, in this land of pain, tragedy, with faith in the Risen Christ, we have a wisdom in the midst of many calamities.”

The work of the Risen Shepherd

In his Urbi et Orbi message on Easter Sunday, the Pope said: “The Risen Shepherd goes in search of all those lost in the labyrinths of loneliness and marginalisation. He comes to meet them through our brothers and sisters who treat them with respect and kindness, and help them to hear his voice, an unforgettable voice, a voice calling them back to friendship with God.

“He takes upon himself all those victimised by old and new forms of slavery, inhuman labour, illegal trafficking, exploitation and discrimination, and grave forms of addiction.

“He takes upon himself children and adolescents deprived of their carefree innocence and exploited, and those deeply hurt by acts of violence that take place within the walls of their own home.”

The faces of the women

In his homily during the Easter Vigil, Pope Francis said: “If we try to imagine this scene, we can see in the faces of those women [who went to Christ’s tomb] any number of other faces: the faces of mothers and grandmothers, of children and young people who bear the grievous burden of injustice and brutality.

“In their faces we can see reflected all those who, walking the streets of our cities, feel the pain of dire poverty, the sorrow born of exploitation and human trafficking.

“We can also see the faces of those who are greeted with contempt because they are immigrants, deprived of country, house and family.

“We see faces whose eyes bespeak loneliness and abandonment, because their hands are creased with wrinkles.

“Their faces mirror the faces of women, mothers, who weep as they see the lives of their children crushed by massive corruption that strips them of their rights and shatters their dreams.”

(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)