VATICAN - The Holy Father's Easter Message: “humanity needs Christ: in Him, our hope, ‘we are saved’”

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - “At the rising of the Easter sun, the Church recognizes the voice of Jesus himself who, on rising from death, turns to the Father filled with gladness and love, and exclaims: My Father, here I am! I have risen, I am still with you, and so I shall be for ever; your Spirit never abandoned me”. These words pronounced by Benedict XVI March 23 were part of the Pope's Urbi et Orbi Message Easter Message addressed to thousands gathered in St Peter's Square in the pouring rain and many more thousand connected via radio and television on Easter Sunday morning “darkness becomes light, night gives way to the day that knows no sunset. The death and resurrection of the Word of God incarnate is an event of invincible love, it is the victory of that Love which has delivered us from the slavery of sin and death. It has changed the course of history, giving to human life an indestructible and renewed meaning and value.”.
This allows the faithful to grasp the profundity of the Easter Mystery, “the Father’s love in handing over his Son for the salvation of the world; the Son’s love in abandoning himself to the Father’s will for us all; the Spirit’s love in raising Jesus from the dead in his transfigured body. And there is more: the Father’s love which “newly embraces” the Son, enfolding him in glory; the Son’s love returning to the Father in the power of the Spirit, robed in our transfigured humanity.”. In the light of this Love the Holy Father urged everyone to convert their hearts “to live by rejecting hatred and selfishness, and to follow with docility in the footsteps of the Lamb that was slain for our salvation, to imitate the Redeemer who is “gentle and lowly in heart”, who is “rest for our souls””. To convert, the Pope said, hearts must not be closed “to the omnipotence of this redeeming love” so that, thanks to this act of total freedom, Jesus sends men and women into the world as “witnesses of his hope”, assuring them that He is with them until the end of time.
The mission to which the Christian is called, the Pontiff recalled is to recognise “the indelible signs of the infinite mercy of God of whom the prophet speaks”, the One “who heals the wounds of broken hearts, who defends the weak and proclaims the freedom of slaves, who consoles all the afflicted and bestows upon them the oil of gladness instead of a mourning robe, a song of praise instead of a sorrowful heart”.
“If with humble trust we draw near to him - the Holy Father concluded - we encounter in his gaze the response to the deepest longings of our heart: to know God and to establish with him a living relationship in an authentic communion of love, which can fill our lives, our interpersonal and social relations with that same love. For this reason, humanity needs Christ: in him, our hope, “we have been saved” '. (Agenzia Fides 23/3/2008 - righe 32, parole 496)