VATICAN - The Pope says during the Easter Vigil: Jesus' death is an act of love which becomes immortal because “his going away is transformed into a new coming, into a form of presence which reaches deeper and does not come to an end. ”

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - During the solemn Easter Vigil Mass, the Holy Father Benedict XVI administered the Sacraments of Christian initiation to a group of catechumens from various different countries. To them he devoted his homily focussed on Jesus' words to his disciples “I go away, and I will come to you”. In the human understanding “Dying is a “going away”, a lasting reality from which there is no return, but Jesus' case is something utterly new. His death achieves the “ I go away, and I will come to you ”, and, as Benedict XVI said, “ It is by going away that he comes. His going ushers in a completely new and greater way of being present. By dying he enters into the love of the Father. His dying is an act of love. Love, however, is immortal. Therefore, his going away is transformed into a new coming, into a form of presence which reaches deeper and does not come to an end."
The Holy Father reminded the faithful of the corporeity of the human person which “ places limits on our existence ”, space and time. “ Our time is destined to come to an end. And between the “I” and the “you” there is a wall of otherness. To be sure, through love we can somehow enter the other’s existence. Nevertheless, the insurmountable barrier of being different Yet Jesus, who is now totally transformed through the act of love, is free from such barriers and limits” and his going and coming as the Risen Lord, “ a presence, yesterday, today and for ever ”, can embrace every time and every place “Now he can even surmount the wall of otherness that separates the “I” from the “you”.
Through the coming of the Risen Lord, all humanity, like Paul, has a new identity, possible only through baptism, in it the Lord enters the door of the human heart and “ We no longer stand alongside or in opposition to one another. ”. “He, the Risen Lord -Benedict XVI reminded the new catechumens - he comes to you and joins his life with yours, drawing you into the open fire of his love. You become one, one with him, and thus one among yourselves”. In this way the baptised are never really strangers to each other because “ the foundation of our lives is the same. We experience that in our inmost depths we are anchored in the same identity, on the basis of which all our outward differences, however great they may be, become secondary. ”.
The Holy Father then explains to the catechumens the symbolism of the water and the light, which mark the Sacrament of Baptism. In the water brings to fulfilment what Moses had done: “: he leads us out of the deadly waters of the sea, out of the waters of death … Jesus descended for us into the dark waters of death. But through his blood, so the Letter to the Hebrews tells us, he was brought back from death: his love united itself to the Father’s love, and thus from the abyss of death he was able to rise to life. Now he raises us from the waters of death to true life. This is exactly what happens in Baptism: he draws us towards himself, he draws us into true life. He leads us through the often murky sea of history, where we are frequently in danger of sinking amid all the confusion and perils. In Baptism he takes us, as it were, by the hand, he leads us along the path that passes through the Red Sea of this life and introduces us to everlasting life, the true and upright life." Commenting the reality of light and fire Benedict emphasised the light of the Truth "the fire of love that transform man’s being" because it reveals God to man. With baptism, the fire of this light enters into the person: "God’s light enters into us; thus we ourselves become children of light." As Christians the Pope said we must not hide in darkness because "we are not called to darkness, but to light" and this light is given to us and is "also fire, a powerful force coming from God, a force that does not destroy, but seeks to transform our hearts, so that we truly become men of God, and so that his peace can become active in this world. The Pope concluded encouraging the faithful to renew their baptism with two liturgical acclamations Conversi ad Dominum” - and: “Sursum corda” -- "we must always turn away from false paths, onto which we stray so often in our thoughts and actions. We must turn ever anew towards him who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. We must be converted ever anew, turning with our whole life towards the Lord. And ever anew we must withdraw our hearts from the force of gravity, which pulls them down, and inwardly we must raise them high: in truth and love…through the power of his word and of the holy Sacraments, he points us in the right direction and draws our heart upwards". (Agenzia Fides 22/3/2008 - righe 49, parole 775)