Easter rekindles faith, excites evangelical zeal, Pope tells audience
April 11, 2012
For all Christians, as for the first disciples, faith in the Risen Christ “transforms our lives,” Pope Benedict XVI told his weekly public audience on April 11. The Pontiff added that his faith “frees them from fear, gives them firm hope, and infuses them with something that provides existence with full meaning: the love of God.”
The Pope recalled how the disciples, gathered fearfully behind locked doors, found their “anguish changed radically when Jesus arrived.” Their sadness was instantly changed to joy, as they understood the reality of the Resurrection. When Jesus said, “Peace be with you,” he was not merely greeting them but commissioning them, the Pope continued. This peace of Christ was a gift, “and the disciples would have to carry it throughout the world.”
The disciples who encountered Jesus on the road to Emmaus had the same sort of experience, Pope Benedict said. They were fired with zeal as they recognized the truth of the Resurrection. “Bearing witness to this event became an irrepressible need for them.”
All Christians should feel the same sense of excitement, the “enthusiastic rediscovery of the sources of the faith” in these days of Eastertide, the Pope said.
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