God Responds To Hardness of Sin With Love – Pope Leo

Pope Leo XIV has said that God responds to the “hardness of sin, with love”.

The pontiff made this known during the Easter Vigil Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican on April 4, 2024.

He noted that while Jesus’ resurrection is the heart of the Easter story, the mystery of Easter extends throughout centuries past, as seen in the nine Scripture passages read at the vigil Mass.

He noted that “we see some of the stages of this path of reconciliation and grace from God’s creation of the world, to the Israelites’ flight from Egypt, to St Paul’s reflections on Christ’s resurrection”.

The unifying theme of all these moments in salvation history, stressed the pontiff, is that “God responds to the hardness of sin, which divides and kills, with the power of love, which unites and restores life”.

Similarly, in his Homily, Pope Leo urged the participants not to be paralysed in the face of the tombs of war, injustices, and the isolation of peoples and nations that are yet to be opened today.

Rather, he urged that they imitate the commitment of the saints so that the Easter gifts of harmony and peace might grow and flourish everywhere and always throughout the world.