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  • L-omelija tal-Arċisqof Charles J. Scicluna

  • Il-Konkatidral ta’ San Ġwann, il-Belt Valletta
    21 ta’ April 2019

    “In-nisa, mimlijin bil-biża’ baxxew għajnejhom lejn l-art imma ż-żewġt irġiel lebsin ilbies jiddi qalulhom: ‘Il-għala qegħdin tfittxuh qalb il-mejtn lil min hu ħaj?’” (Lq 24:5).

    Dan huwa l-messaġġ li aħna qegħdin niċċelebraw illum b’ferħ kbir: fittxejna katavru u sibna qabar vojt. M’għandniex infittxu qalb il-mejtin lil Ġesù ta’ Nazaret li hu ħaj. Illum niċċelebraw il-fidi tal-Knisja fl-irxoxt tal-Mulej Ġesù. Minn dan l-avveniment bħal għajn qaddisa tinbet il-fidi tagħna u dak kollu li aħna ngħixu ta’ Nsara.

    We have heard the gospel narrative of the resurrection according to Luke from Chapter 24. The women go to the tomb carrying spices, perfumes, ointment. They want to anoint a corpse; they find an empty tomb. They meet two men robed in white splendid clothes and full of fear they looked down to the earth. But the two men tell the women: “Why are you looking for a corpse? Why are you looking for him among the dead? He is alive! He is not here. He is risen” (Lk 24: 5). They had been to the tomb expecting to find the stench of death; they find the beauty, the light and the hope of the resurrection.

    At Easter, all our senses are renewed. The women look to the earth but the angels, the two men, invite them to look up to heaven. He is risen! And they also purify and renew their memory. “Remember what he had told you that the Son of Man had to go through suffering at the hands of sinners, that he had to be crucified but that he would rise on the 3rd day” (Lk 24, 6-7). Luke says that at that moment the women remembered the words of Jesus and the words of Jesus were confirmed. They sounded true.

    But there is another sense which is renewed at Easter. I would say it is born at Easter. And it is the sense of faith. If our senses, that are so necessary for our perception, are all renewed at Easter because we see an empty tomb, we hear the message of the risen Lord, we can smell the perfume of the resurrection and we can speak of our experience.

    But there is a sense which is born this day. It is the sense of faith, the ‘sensus fidei’. The apostles could not believe what the women had told them. They thought that that was all imagination almost a hallucination borne out of great sorrow and bereavement. Peter runs to the tomb. He finds it empty, only the shroud is there. And there is another sense that is born. He goes back to the other disciples full of astonishment. Today we thank the Lord for the gift of faith but also for the gift of being able to wonder, to be full of astonishment, admiration.

    Let us pray that at this Easter morning we are renewed in our hearts and in our souls, that we are filled with his peace, the gift he brings at the crucified and risen Lord. As the sequentia says we know that Christ has truly risen from the dead: ‘scimus Christum surrexisse a mortuis vere, Alleluia’.

    ✠ Charles J. Scicluna

        Arċisqof ta’ Malta

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