At Easter Mass, Pope Leo proclaims Resurrection conquers ‘the power of death’

Pope Leo XIV offered Easter Mass in St. Peter’s Square Sunday proclaiming that with Christ’s resurrection “death has been conquered forever” and “no longer has power over us.”

“Today all of creation is resplendent with new light, a song of praise rises from the earth, and our hearts rejoice: Christ is risen from the dead, and with him, we too rise to new life,” the pope said.

Pope Leo declared that Easter “embraces the mystery of our lives and the destiny of history, reaching us even in the depths of death, where we feel threatened and sometimes overwhelmed. It opens us up to a hope that never fails, to a light that never fades, to a fullness of joy that nothing can take away.”

Tens of thousands gathered under the bright Roman sun on April 5 in a flower-adorned St. Peter’s Square for the first Easter Mass of Pope Leo XIV’s pontificate. The square was transformed for the occasion by thousands of blooms in vivid colors on the stairs leading up to the Renaissance basilica.

The Mass opened with the choir’s joyful proclamation: “O sons and daughters of the King, whom heavenly hosts in glory sing, today the grave has lost its sting. Alleluia!”

In his homily, Pope Leo declared that the resurrection of Christ has conquered the power of death, which he said “constantly threatens us” both from within, our feelings, doubts, disappointments, fears, and from outside, where war, injustice, selfishness and violence are prevalent.

From within, he said, that power manifests in sin, loneliness, doubt and exhaustion. “The weight of our sins prevents us from ‘spreading our wings’ and taking flight, or when the disappointments or loneliness we experience drain our hope,” he said.

“When we have to come to terms with our weakness, with the sufferings and the daily grind of life, we can feel as if we have ended up in a tunnel with no end in sight.”

But the pope also turned his gaze outward, describing a world marked by suffering and injustice.

“We see it present in injustices, in partisan selfishness, in the oppression of the poor, in the lack of attention given to the most vulnerable,” he said. “We see it in violence, in the wounds of the world, in the cry of pain that rises from every corner because of the abuses that crush the weakest among us, because of the idolatry of profit that plunders the earth’s resources, because of the violence of war that kills and destroys.”

Yet Easter, Pope Leo insisted, refuses to allow despair to be the final word. The feast “invites us to lift our gaze and open our hearts,” he said, and announces that “the power of death is not the final destiny of our lives. We are all directed, once and for all, on the path to fulfillment, because in Christ we also have risen.”

During the Mass, the Gospel of John was proclaimed in both Latin and Greek, and the prayers of the faithful were offered in Arabic, Chinese, Spanish, Vietnamese, and Portuguese. Pope Leo offered the consecration in Latin.

The pope called on Christians to carry that message into the wider world, like St. Mary Magdalene, who ran to announce the risen Christ to the disciples.

“Brothers and sisters, Easter gives us this hope, as we remember that in the risen Christ a new creation is possible every day,” Pope Leo said.

“We need this song of hope today. It is ourselves, risen with Christ, who must bring him into the streets of the world. Let us then run like Mary Magdalene, announcing him to everyone, living out the joy of the resurrection, so that wherever the specter of death still lingers, the light of life may shine,” he said.

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