Concelebrating with Archbishop Vukšić were the Provincial of the Franciscan Province of Bosna Srebrena, OFM Zdravko Dadić, and six priests. At the beginning of the Holy Mass, greeting the gathered, the Archbishop of Vrhbosna congratulated the greatest Christian feast. In the opening part of his homily, entitled Always Ready to Give an Account of the Hope That Is in Us, the preacher recalled the words of Saint Paul, with which he began a letter to one of his associates, whom he called his son in the faith, and he repeated similar words several times in other places in his writings.

Courageous Witnesses of the Truth

"The fact that Jesus is our hope and the hope of all mankind is based on the truth that he was resurrected. This is witnessed by the Gospels, including today's passage (Jn 20:1-9), and by the faith and proclamation of the apostles, which is based on Jesus' manifestations and their direct experience, which we read about in today's passage from the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 10:34-43)", the archbishop reminded us, recalling how Jesus' disciples, frightened and saddened by His condemnation and violent death, and in fear that they too might be persecuted, first took refuge behind locked doors, but, encouraged by Jesus' manifestation after the resurrection and by direct contact with him, they very quickly turned into courageous witnesses of the truth and public preachers of what they had seen and heard.

"With his resurrection, Jesus opened the door to eternal life for all people and established a bridge between this world and eternal life, which is open for all people to pass through", he said, emphasizing that hope for a new life is the basic message of Easter - the content of the event of Jesus' resurrection by which He defeated death and continued to live in a new way, in eternity.

Applied Christianity

Hope, the preacher continued, is one of the three central - most important virtues in Christianity, along with faith and love, and the concretization of hope in the everyday life of Christians is something that could rightly be called applied Christianity. "In this sense, the jubilee year 2025 of the birth of Jesus, which is entirely dedicated to the virtue of Christian hope and its concrete witness, is only an occasion to actualize the truth that Christianity is a faith of hope and that Christian believers are sent to be witnesses of hope. In other words, witnessing to hope is an indispensable part of the life of every Christian because a Christian believes in Jesus Christ, the risen one, who is precisely because of this, as the apostle Paul writes, our hope", emphasized Msgr. Vukšić, recalling the pious Croatian liturgical song: Jesus rose gloriously, and the darkness disappears, heavy sorrow makes the day joyful for the son. Now is the day of joy, the day of the Saviour. Let us all give him praise, let us sing joyfully.

Let us be a sign of hope for each other

Furthermore, the preacher reminded us of the circumstance of the present moment that needs to be recognized, which is how this year Muslims, Catholics and Orthodox Christians were preparing for their great holidays at the same time by fasting. “This proximity in the spiritual calendar offers an opportunity, and we pray for it, to walk with each other, in a common process of purification, prayer and mercy. Likewise, this symbolism should be interpreted as not wanting to live next to each other, but wanting to live together in sincere and mutual respect and be a sign of hope for each other”, encouraged the Archbishop of Vrhbosna.

The liturgical singing was animated by the Cathedral Mixed Choir Josip Stadler, conducted by Rev. Marko Stanušić, and the assistance at the altar was led by Rev. Ivan Rako.

At the end of the Holy Mass, Archbishop Vukšić distributed the blessing with a general absolution.