Leading his first Easter Sunday Mass as Washington’s new archbishop, Cardinal Robert W. McElroy said the Resurrection of Christ and his victory over death “is the hope and sustenance of our lives on this Earth,” and guides people’s journeys of faith as they seek their eternal destiny in heaven.
The cardinal’s Easter Sunday Mass on April 20, 2025 at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, D.C., began with the cathedral’s Schola Cantorum choir leading the standing-room congregation in singing the joyful hymn “Jesus Christ is Risen Today.”
Cardinal McElroy – who was installed as Washington’s archbishop on March 11 after serving for 10 years as the bishop of San Diego – offered a personal greeting to the congregation as the Mass began.
“Happy Easter to you all,” the cardinal said, adding that day commemorated Jesus’s Resurrection, when he rose from the dead “and gives us our hope and our conviction of eternal life. So we walk on this earth as citizens of heaven already, destined to be in the kingdom of our God and walking in this grace all the moments of our lives.”
Welcoming people to the cathedral that morning, Cardinal McElroy said, “I want to welcome all those who are parishioners here, all those who are visiting, all those who are home for this wonderful weekend and celebration. I want to welcome all of you who have come here seeking the Lord in your life and knowing that God’s grace stands here, welcoming you all ardently, begging you to come in and become closer to God in our relationship with the Lord...”
In a prayer moments later, Cardinal McElroy noted how Jesus “conquered death and unlocked for us the pathway to eternity.”
The first reading at the Mass from the Acts of the Apostles told how Peter said that he and the Apostles were witnesses to all that Jesus did before he was crucified, and then they witnessed the risen Christ who commissioned them to share the Good News of Jesus with the world. The Gospel of John read at the Mass told the story of Mary Magdalene discovering that Jesus’s tomb was empty and then running to tell Peter and John what she had seen.
In his homily, Cardinal McElroy told a story about when he was a young seminarian for the Archdiocese of San Francisco, and a fellow seminarian who had been an airline pilot invited him to join him and a flying student on a flight to Alaska in a small plane during their spring break. But in Alaska, the plane encountered a sudden blinding snowstorm, and the pilot had to make a steep ascent to stay clear of mountains. As the pilot used instruments to guide him to the next airport that was two hours away, the flight became even more harrowing when they realized they only had about two hours of fuel left.
The future cardinal who was sitting in the back was asked to keep watch to make sure ice wasn’t forming on the wings. Not knowing whether they would live or die, he prayed an Act of Contrition, the rosary and a number of other prayers. “Two hours is a long time, and I ran out of prayers,” he said jokingly.
Eventually the plane landed safely. Cardinal McElroy said that over the years as he reflected on that experience, he remembered how, “Even though I didn’t know if I was going to live or die while I was there waiting, I didn’t feel terrible anxiety. I felt a sort of peace, and I was trying to reflect, ‘Why did I feel that?’”
The cardinal said he thinks the reason is at that moment he knew with clarity that his life was “in the hands of a God who loves us deeply, who has loved us from the beginning of our lives and will sustain us and love us into all eternity. And that is why I had that peace.”
Connecting that experience to the message of Easter, Cardinal McElroy said, “And that is the peace of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, of understanding in the great victory of Christ’s Resurrection, we see with utter clarity that each of us lives in the hands of a God who has loved us from the first moment in our mother’s womb and will love us until the end of time, and stands with us and sustains us and carries us through. This is the great hope and conviction given to us by this Easter day.”
Noting how after Mary Magdalene discovered the empty tomb of the risen Christ, “hope deepened in her heart and she understood the reality of God’s great love, power, glory and commitment to us,” the cardinal said that when people come to times of hardship or struggles or difficulties in their lives, “we always know that this same God who was victorious over death itself will stand by us, sustain us, love us and care for us.”
“And that is the reason why this is truly a day when we say Alleluia in our hearts and souls, because Jesus Christ has risen from the dead, and He loves us without reserve,” Cardinal McElroy said.
After the homily, the cardinal led the people in the congregation in renewing their baptismal promises, and then he walked down the cathedral’s center aisle, sprinkling holy water on them.
The prayers of the faithful included a prayer that the risen Christ will inspire the service of people in ordained ministry, consecrated life and lay ministry, a prayer that the hope of Christ will console those who mourn or who are in need or who are sick and suffering, and a prayer that St. Matthew’s Cathedral parish will proclaim the Good News of the Resurrection in its ministries and outreach.
After Communion, the Schola Cantorum sang a soaring Alleluia motet that the choir had also sung the previous evening at the Easter Vigil.
Before offering his final blessing, Cardinal McElroy thanked Msgr. W. Ronald Jameson, the cathedral’s rector, and the choir and all the liturgical ministers. Then speaking to the congregation, the cardinal said, “Most of all, I want to thank you for being here to celebrate this great feast in which we gather from every walk of life and every background and every corner of this nation and this world to come together to celebrate the Resurrection of Christ, which is the hope and the sustenance of our lives on this Earth and the shaper of our journeys of faith.”
“I pray for all of you, that you have a wonderful Easter day today and an Easter journey in the months to come,” the cardinal said, and then he offered the final blessing.
The Easter Mass concluded with the hymn, “Christ the Lord is Risen Today.”
The livestream link to Cardinal McElroy’s Easter Sunday Mass at St. Matthew’s Cathedral can be found at https://www.youtube.com/live/uy7-_Y8wXEI
Later on Easter Sunday, Cardinal McElroy celebrated a noon Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception that was livestreamed on the basilica’s YouTube channel and can viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DNnKLJllzA
