COVID-19 Crisis Forces Us to Choose Between Life and Love of Money, Says Pope Francis

He said: “Let us pray today for the rulers, the scientists, the politicians, who have begun to study the way out, the post-pandemic, this ‘after’ that has already begun: that they find the right way, always in favor of the people.”

Speaking from the chapel of his Vatican residence, the Casa Santa Marta, he noted that in the Gospel reading Jesus entrusted women with a message for his disciples.

“God always begins with women, always,” the pope observed. “They open roads. They do not doubt: they know; they have seen him, they have touched him. They have also seen the empty tomb.”

He then reflected on the soldiers guarding Jesus’ tomb, who accepted a large sum of money in return for saying that Christ’s body had been stolen at night by his disciples. 

The pope said: “These poor people do not understand, they are afraid because life is at stake... and they have gone to the priests, to the doctors of the law. And they have paid: they have paid the silence, and this, dear brothers and sisters, is not a bribe: this is pure corruption, pure corruption.”

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After Mass, the pope presided at adoration and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, before leading those watching via livestream in a prayer of spiritual communion.

He concluded his homily: “May the Lord, both in our personal life and in our social life, always help us to choose the proclamation: the proclamation on the horizon is always available, is open, always; lead us to choose the good of the people. And never fall into the tomb of the god of money.”