Papa Francesco - Homily, 31 March 2018: "And if yesterday, with the women, we contemplated “the one whom they have pierced” (cf Jn 19, 36; cf Zech 12, 10), today with them we are called to contemplate the empty tomb and to listen to the words of the angel: “Do not be afraid… He is risen” (Mt 28, 5-6). Words that want to reach our deepest convictions and certainties, our ways of judging and dealing with everyday events; especially our way of relating with others. The empty tomb wants to challenge, move, question us, but above all it wants to encourage us to believe and trust that God “happens” in any situation, in any person, and that his light can reach into the most unpredictable and closed corners of existence. He has risen from death, he has risen from the place from which nobody awaits anything and He awaits us – as He awaited the women – so as to render us participants in his work of salvation. This is the foundation and the strength that we have as Christians so as to spend our lives and our energy, intelligence, affections and will in seeking and especially in generating pathways of dignity. He is not here… He is risen! It is the announcement that sustains our hope and transforms it into concrete gestures of love. How much we need to let our fragility be anointed by this experience! How much we need our faith to be renewed, our myopic horizons to be challenged and renewed by this announcement! He is risen and with Him rises our creative hope to face actual problems, because we know that we are not alone. To celebrate Easter means to believe anew that God bursts into and does not cease to burst into our stories, defying our uniform and paralyzing determinisms. To celebrate Easter means to let Jesus conquer that pusillanimous attitude that so often besieges us and tries to bury every kind of hope. The stone of the sepulchre has done its part, the women have done their part, now the invitation is addressed once again to you and to me: the invitation to break from repetitive habits, to renew our lives, our choices and our existence. An invitation that is addressed to us here where we find ourselves, in that which we are doing and are being; with the “quota of power” that we have. Do we want to participate in this announcement of life or will we remain silent before events? He is not here… he is risen! And he is waiting for you in Galilee, he is inviting you to return/go back to the time and place of the first love, so as to say to you: Do not be afraid, follow me." Visit Totus2us for much more - dedicated to Our Lady, it is inspired by Blessed John Paul II, Papa Benedict XVI and Pope Francis. Totus Tuus (All Yours) was JPII's motto to Our Lady. Mary is also everything to us - Totus2us.