Entry 0271: Reflections on Easter Monday by Pope Benedict XVI
On seven occasions during his
pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI recited the Regina Caeli on Easter Monday from a balcony at the papal residence in Castel Gandolfo accompanied
by the people gathered in the courtyard, on 17 April 2006, 9 April 2007, 24
March 2008, 13 April 2009, 5 April 2010, 25 April 2011, and 9 April 2012. Here
are the texts of the seven brief reflections delivered by the Holy Father on these occasions.
REGINA
Castel
Gandolfo , Easter Monday, 17 April 2006
REGINA
Castel
Gandolfo , Easter Monday, 9 April 2007
REGINA
Castel Gandolfo , Easter Monday, 24 March 2008
REGINA
Castel Gandolfo , Easter Monday, 13 April 2009
REGINA
Castel
Gandolfo , Easter Monday, 5 April 2010
REGINA
Castel
Gandolfo , Easter Monday, 25 April 2011
REGINA
Castel
Gandolfo , Easter Monday, 9 April 2012
BENEDICT XVI
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I am pleased to be with you again in the
light of the Paschal Mystery, which we celebrate in the liturgy throughout this
week, and to renew the most beautiful Christian proclamation: "Christ is
risen, alleluia!"
The typical Marian character of our meeting
leads us to live the spiritual joy of Easter in communion with Mary Most Holy,
thinking of what her joy must have been at Jesus' Resurrection.
In the prayer of the Regina Caeli that we
recite in place of the Angelus in this Easter Season, we address the Virgin,
asking her to rejoice because the One whom she bore in her womb is risen: "Quia
quem meruisti portare, resurrexit, sicut dixit".
Mary treasured in her heart the "Good
News" of the Resurrection, the source and secret of the true joy and
genuine peace that Christ who died and rose again won for us with his sacrifice
on the Cross.
Let us ask Mary to continue to guide our
steps in this period of spiritual joy, just as she accompanied us during the
days of the Passion, so that we may grow more and more in the knowledge and
love of the Lord and become witnesses and apostles of his peace.
In the context of Easter, I would also like
to share with you today the joy of a very important anniversary: it is 500
years, precisely on 18 April 1506, since Pope Julius II laid the foundation
stone of the new St Peter's Basilica, the powerful harmony of whose structure
the whole world admires.
I would like to remember with gratitude the
Supreme Pontiffs who desired this extraordinary edifice over the tomb of the
Apostle Peter. I recall with admiration the artists who contributed with their
genius to building and decorating it, and I am also grateful to the personnel
of the Fabric of St Peter's, who see so well to the maintenance and
preservation of such a singular masterpiece of art and faith.
May the happy occasion of the 500th
anniversary reawaken in all Catholics the desire to be "living
stones" (I Pt 2: 5) for the construction of the Holy Church, in which the
"light of Christ" shines forth (cf. Lumen Gentium, no. 1)
through love that is lived and witnessed to before the world (cf. Jn 13:
34-35).
May the Virgin Mary, whom the Litany of
Loreto makes us invoke as "Causa nostrae laetitiae - Cause of our
joy", obtain for us that we always experience the joy of being part
of the spiritual edifice of the Church, a "community of love", born
from the Heart of Christ.
BENEDICT XVI
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
We are still filled with the spiritual joy
that the solemn celebrations of Easter truly bring to believers' hearts. Christ
is risen! The liturgy devotes to this immense mystery not only a day - it would
be too little for such joy-, but at least 50 days, that is, the entire Easter
Season, which ends with Pentecost.
Easter Sunday, moreover, is an absolutely
special day which extends for the whole of this week until next Sunday and
forms the Octave of Easter.
In the atmosphere of Paschal joy, today's
liturgy takes us back to the sepulcher where, according to St Matthew's
account, impelled by their love for him, Mary of Magdala and the other Mary
went to "visit" Jesus' tomb. The Evangelist tells us that he comes to
meet them and says: "Do not be afraid; go and tell my brethren to go to Galilee , and there they will see me" (Mt 28:
10).
The joy they felt at seeing their Lord was
truly indescribable and, filled with enthusiasm, they ran to tell the
disciples.
The Risen One also repeats to us today, as
to these women who stayed by Jesus during the Passion, not to be afraid to
become messengers of the proclamation of his Resurrection. Those who encounter
the Risen Jesus and entrust themselves docilely to him have nothing to fear.
This is the message that Christians are called to spread to the very ends of
the earth.
The Christian faith, as we know, is not born
from the acceptance of a doctrine but from an encounter with a Person, with
Christ, dead and Risen.
In our daily lives, dear friends, there are
so many opportunities to proclaim this faith of ours to others simply and with
conviction, so that from our encounter their faith can grow.
And it is more urgent than ever that the men
and women of our age know and encounter Jesus, and, also thanks to our example,
allow themselves to be won over by him.
The Gospel says nothing about the Mother of
the Lord, of Mary, but Christian tradition rightly likes to contemplate her
while with joy greater than anyone else's she embraces her divine Son, whom she
had held close when he was taken down from the Cross. Now, after the
Resurrection, the Mother of the Redeemer rejoices with Jesus'
"friends", who constitute the newborn Church.
As I renew my heartfelt Easter greetings to
you all, I invoke her, the Regina Caeli [Queen of Heaven], so that she may keep
alive in each one of us faith in the Resurrection and may make us messengers of
the hope and love of Jesus Christ.
BENEDICT XVI
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
At the solemn Easter Vigil after the days of Lent
the singing of the "Alleluia", a Hebrew word known across the world
that means "Praise the Lord", rings out once again. During the days
of Eastertide this invitation spreads by word of mouth, from heart to heart. It
re-echoes an absolutely new event: Christ's death and Resurrection. The
"alleluia" welled up in the hearts of Jesus' first disciples, men and
women, on that Easter morning in Jerusalem
From this experience too stems the Regina Caeli, the prayer
that we recite instead of the Angelus today and every day in the Easter Season.
The text that replaces the Angelus in these weeks is brief and has the direct
form of an announcement: it is like a new "Annunciation" to Mary,
this time not made by an Angel but by us Christians who invite the Mother to
rejoice because her Son, whom she carried in her womb, is risen as he promised.
Indeed, "rejoice" was the first word that the heavenly messenger
addressed to the Virgin in Nazareth
Dear brothers and sisters, let us allow the paschal
"alleluia" to be deeply impressed within us too, so that it is not
only a word in certain external circumstances but is expressed in our own
lives, the lives of people who invite everyone to praise the Lord and do so
with their behavior as "risen" ones. "Pray the Lord for
us", we say to Mary, that the One who restored joy to the whole world by
means of his Son's Resurrection may grant us to enjoy such gladness now and
always, in our life and in the life without end.
BENEDICT XVI
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
In these days of Easter we shall often hear Jesus' words resound:
"I am risen and I am with you always". Echoing this good news, the
Church proclaims exultantly: "Yes, we are certain! The Lord is truly
risen, alleluia! The power and the glory are his, now and forever". The
whole Church rejoices, expressing her sentiments by singing: "This is the
day of Our Lord Jesus Christ". In fact, in rising from the dead, Jesus
inaugurated his eternal day and has opened the door to our joy, too. "I
will not die", he says, "but will have everlasting life". The
crucified Son of man, the stone rejected by the builders, has now become the
solid foundation of the new spiritual edifice which is the Church, his mystical
Body. The People of God, which has Christ as its invisible Head, is destined to
grow in the course of the centuries until the complete fulfillment of the plan
of salvation. Then the whole of humanity will be incorporated into him and
every existing reality will be penetrated with his total victory. Then, as St Paul
Thus it is right for the Christian community to rejoice all of us
because the Resurrection of the Lord assures us that the divine plan of
salvation, despite all the obscurity of history, will certainly be brought
about. This is why his Passover truly is our hope. And we, risen with Christ
through Baptism, must now follow him faithfully in holiness of life, advancing
towards the eternal Passover, sustained by the knowledge that the difficulties,
struggles and trials of human life, including death, henceforth can no longer
separate us from Him and his love. His Resurrection has formed a bridge between
the world and eternal life over which every man and every woman can cross to
reach the true goal of our earthly pilgrimage.
"I am risen and I am with you always". This assurance of
Jesus is realized above all in the Eucharist; it is in every Eucharistic
Celebration that the Church and every one of her members experience his living
presence and benefit from the full richness of his love. In the Sacrament of
the Eucharist, the risen Lord is present and mercifully purifies us from our sins;
he nourishes us spiritually and infuses us with strength to withstand the harsh
trials of life and the fight against sin and evil. He is the sturdy support in
our pilgrimage towards the eternal dwelling place in Heaven. May the Virgin
Mary, who experienced beside her divine Son every phase of his mission on
earth, help us to welcome with faith the gift of Easter and make us faithful
and joyful witnesses of the risen Lord.
BENEDICT XVI
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
In the light of Easter that we are
celebrating throughout this week I renew my most cordial greetings of peace and
joy. As you know, the Monday after the Sunday of the Resurrection is
traditionally known as "Lunedì del Angelo". It is very
interesting to reflect on this reference to the "Angel". Of course,
we think straight away of the Gospel narratives of Jesus' Resurrection, in
which a messenger of the Lord appears. St Matthew writes: "And behold,
there was a great earthquake; for an Angel of the Lord descended from Heaven
and came and rolled back the stone, and sat upon it. His appearance was like
lightning, and his raiment white as snow" (Mt 28: 2-3). All the
Evangelists, then, explain that when the women went to the tomb and found it
open and empty, it was an Angel who told them that Jesus had risen. In Matthew,
this messenger of the Lord says to them: "Do not be afraid; for I know
that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has risen, as he
said". (Mt 28: 5-6); he then shows them the empty tomb and charges them to
take the message to the disciples. In Mark, the Angel is described as "a
young man... dressed in a white robe", who gives the women the same
message (cf. 16: 5-6). Luke speaks if "two men ... in dazzling
apparel", who remind the women that Jesus had told them long before of his
death and Resurrection (cf. Lk 24: 4-7). John also speaks of "two Angels
in white"; it is Mary Magdalene who sees them as she weeps by the tomb and
they ask her: "Woman, why are you weeping?" (Jn 20: 11-13).
However the Angel of the Resurrection also
calls to mind another meaning. Indeed, we must remember that as well as
describing Angels, spiritual creatures endowed with intelligence and a will,
servants and messengers of God, the term "Angel" is also one of the
most ancient titles attributed to Jesus himself. We read, for example, in
Tertullian: "He", that is, Christ, "was also the "Angel of
counsel', that is, a herald, a term that denotes an office rather than a
nature. Effectively he was to proclaim to the world the Father's great plan for
the restoration of man" (cf. De Carne Christi, 14). This is what
the ancient Christian writer said. Jesus Christ, the Son of God was therefore
also called the "Angel of God the Father": he is the Messenger par
excellence of God's love. Dear friends, let us now consider what the Risen
Jesus said to the Apostles: "As the Father has sent me, even so I send
you" (Jn 20: 21); and he communicated his Holy Spirit to them. This means
that just as Jesus was the herald of God the Father's love, we too must be
heralds of Christ's charity: let us be messengers of his Resurrection, of his
victory over evil and death, heralds of his divine love.
By our nature, of course, we remain men and
women, but we have received the mission of "Angels", messengers of
Christ: it is given to all in Baptism and in Confirmation. Through the
sacrament of Orders, priests, ministers of Christ, receive it in a special way.
I wish to emphasize this in this Year for Priests.
Dear brothers and sisters, let us now turn
to the Virgin Mary, invoking her as Regina Caeli, Queen of Heaven. May
she help you to accept to the full the grace of the Paschal Mystery and to
become courageous and joyful messengers of Christ's Resurrection.
BENEDICT XVI
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Surrexit Dominus vere! Alleluia! The Lord’s Resurrection marks the renewal of
our human condition. Christ triumphed over death, caused by our sin, and restores
us to immortal life. This event gave rise to the whole of the Church’s life and
to the very existence of Christians.
On this day, Easter Monday, we read in the
first missionary discourse of the nascent Church: “This Jesus”, the Apostle
Peter proclaimed, “God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses. Being
therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father
the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this which you see and hear”
(Acts 2:32-33).
One of the characteristic signs of faith in
the Resurrection is the greeting among Christians during Eastertide, inspired
by the ancient liturgical hymn: “Christ is risen! / He is truly risen!” It is a
profession of faith and a commitment of life, as it was for the women described
in Matthew’s Gospel: “And behold, Jesus met them and said: ‘Hail!’ And they
came up and took hold of his feet and worshipped him. Then Jesus said to them,
‘Do not be afraid; go and tell my brethren to go to Galilee ,
and there they will see me’” (28: 9-10).
“The whole Church”, the Servant of God Paul
VI wrote, “receives the mission to evangelize, and the work of each individual
member is important for the whole…. She remains as a sign — simultaneously
obscure and luminous — of a new presence of Jesus, of his departure and of his
permanent presence. She prolongs and continues him” (Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii
Nuntiandi, 8 December 1975, no. 15.
How can we encounter the Lord and
increasingly become his authentic witnesses? St Maximus of Turin stated:
“Anyone who wishes to reach the Savior must first, in his own faith, seat him
at the right hand of the Divinity, and place him with heartfelt conviction in
Heaven” (Sermon 39 a, 3: CCL 23, 157), in other words one must learn to
focus the gaze of one’s mind and heart constantly on the heights of God, where
the Risen Christ is. In this way God encounters man in prayer and adoration.
The theologian Romano Guardini noted that
“adoration is not something additional, something secondary… it is a matter of
the utmost importance, of feeling and of being. In adoration man recognizes
what is valid in the pure, simple and holy sense” (cf. La Pasqua,
Meditazioni, Brescia 1995, 62). Only if we are able to turn to God, to pray
him, do we discover the deepest meaning of our life and the daily routine is
illumined by the light of the Risen One.
Dear friends, today the Church in both the
East and the West is celebrating St Mark the Evangelist, a wise herald of the
Word and a writer of Christ’s teaching — as he was described in ancient times.
He is also Patron of the city of Venice
BENEDICT XVI
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
In many countries Easter Monday is a holiday
on which to take a stroll in natural surroundings or to visit relatives who live
far away in order to gather as a family. However, I would like that the reason
for this holiday, namely, the Resurrection of Jesus, the crucial mystery of our
faith, to be ever present in the minds and hearts of Christians. Indeed, as St
Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “If Christ has not been raised, then our
preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain” (1 Cor 15:14). Therefore on
these days it is important to reinterpret the narratives of Christ’s
Resurrection which we find in the four Gospels. They are accounts which present
in different ways the meetings of the disciples with the Risen Jesus and
thereby permit us to meditate on this wonderful event which has transformed
history and gives meaning to the existence of every person.
The event of the Resurrection as such is not
described by the Evangelists: it remains mysterious, not in the sense of being
less real, but hidden, beyond the scope of our knowledge: like a light so
bright that we cannot look at it or we should be blinded. The narratives begin
instead when, towards dawn on the day after Saturday, the women went to the
tomb and found it open and empty. St Matthew also speaks of an earthquake and a
dazzling angel who rolled away the great stone sealing the tomb and sat on it
(cf. Mt 28:2).
Having heard the angel’s announcement of the
Resurrection, the women, with fear and great joy, hastened to take the news to
the disciples and at that very moment encountered Jesus, prostrated themselves
at his feet and worshipped him; and he said to them: “Do not be afraid; go and
tell my brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see me” (Mt 28:10). In
all the Gospels, in the accounts of the appearances of the Risen Jesus, women
are given ample room, as moreover also in the accounts of Jesus’ Passion and
death. In those times, in Israel the testimony of women could not possess any
official or juridical value, but the women had had an experience of a special
bond with the Lord, which was fundamental for the practical life of the
Christian community, and this is always the case in every epoch and not only
when the Church was taking her first steps.
Mary, Mother of the
Lord, of course, is the sublime and exemplary model of this relationship with
Jesus, and in a special way in his Paschal Mystery. Precisely through the
transforming experience of the Passover of her Son, the Virgin Mary also
becomes Mother of the Church, that is, of each one of the believers and of
their whole community. Let us now turn to her, invoking her as Regina Caeli,
with the prayer that tradition has us recite instead of the Angelus
throughout the Easter season. May Mary obtain for us that we experience the
living presence of the Risen Lord, source of hope and peace.
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