The celebration of Easter Sunday, the Solemnity of Solemnities, is the pinnacle of the traditional liturgical calendar, commemorating the triumphant Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ on the third day after His crucifixion. This supreme feast not only concludes the sacred Paschal Triduum but inaugurates the joyful Octave of Easter and the Easter Season, establishing the absolute foundation of the Christian faith: the definitive victory over sin and death. The traditional rite of Easter fulfills the prefiguration of the ancient Jewish Passover, where the blood of the lamb that delivered from physical death gives way to the sacrifice of the true Lamb of God, who redeems humanity for eternal life. Historically, after the exhaustive and glorious Vigil celebrated at Saint John Lateran during the night, the Mass of Easter Day in Rome was traditionally celebrated at the Station of the Basilica of Saint Mary Major. This liturgical choice of the Church holds a most beautiful and pious symbolism: honoring the Most Holy Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, whose unshakable faith in the divinity and promises of Her Son never wavered, even before the dark sepulcher, being the first to exult in the silence of Her Immaculate Heart with the triumph of Christ.
🎵 Introit (Sl 138, 18 and 5-6 | ib., 1-2)
Resurréxi, et adhuc tecum sum, allelúia: posuísti super me manum tuam, allelúia: mirábilis facta est sciéntia tua, allelúia, allelúia. Ps. ib. 1-2 Dómine, probásti me, et cognovísti me: tu cognovísti sessiónem meam, et resurrectiónem meam.
I have risen and am still with you, alleluia; you have placed your hand upon me, alleluia: your knowledge has become wonderful, alleluia, alleluia. Ps. O Lord, you have tested me and known me; you know when I sit and when I rise.
📖 Epistle (I Cor 5, 7-8)
A reading from Saint Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians. Brethren: Purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, as you are unleavened; for Christ, our Paschal Lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the feast, not with the old leaven nor with the leaven of malice and corruption, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
✝️ Gospel (Mk 16, 1-7)
At that time, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might come and anoint Jesus. And very early on the first day of the week, after the Sabbath, at sunrise, they came to the tomb. And they said to one another: Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb? And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away, for it was very large. Entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. He said to them: Do not be afraid; you seek Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified; he has risen, he is not here; behold the place where they laid him. But go and tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him, as he told you.
🕊️ The victory of Christ over death and the new life
The sacred account of the empty tomb shines forth as the immovable foundation of our faith and the highest proof of the divinity of Our Lord. The holy women, moved by intrepid and compassionate devotion, go to the tomb to anoint the One they loved, encountering the heavy stone already rolled away and the angelic announcement of victory over death. Saint Gregory the Great teaches in his homilies that this morning visit symbolizes the movement of the soul which, seeking Christ with ardent love, discovers that He transcends mortality itself, revealing Himself alive to lead the faithful to the Galilee of heavenly contemplation. The illuminated presence of the angel dressed in white, as Saint Thomas Aquinas brilliantly highlights, represents the divine light that dispels the darkness of ignorance, clarifying the mystery of the Scriptures and leading frightened hearts to the firm and serene conviction of the glorious Resurrection.
The stupendous manifestation of this immortal life demands of us a radical interior transformation, as the Apostle vigorously proclaims in the reading of this most holy day. Christ, our true Paschal Lamb, was sacrificed to redeem captive humanity, and this supreme sacrifice definitively inaugurates a time of spiritual purity and grace. Saint Augustine, reflecting on this mystery, warns that the "old leaven" mentioned in the Epistle figures the deep-rooted corruption of sin, the inheritance of our original fall, which must be rigorously purged so that we may make room for the sincerity of the new life in God. To participate in this eternal Passover means to abandon the old man of malice, becoming a "new lump" purified, in a banquet that Saint John Chrysostom describes as the true Christian exultation, where genuine love and active justice replace the former afflictions of the world.
This ardent call to purification finds its deepest meaning in the triumphal proclamation that echoes in the majestic Introit of today's liturgy: "Resurréxi, et adhuc tecum sum" - I have risen and am still with you. These mysterious words, spoken by the Son to the Eternal Father at the moment of His triumph, demonstrate the perennial divine communion that the chains of death could never extinguish. It is this exact certainty of the living, sovereign, and continuous presence of the Risen One that encourages us to discard the sour leaven of our weaknesses and to run with the impetuous joy of the holy women to announce the liberation of humanity. Easter, far from being merely the remembrance of a once-empty tomb, is the concrete experience of the Living Christ who, having placed His wounded and glorious hands upon us, lifts up our fallen nature and draws us irresistibly to the imperishable rest of His eternity.