Catholic Diocese of Broome

Easter Message - God's promise of everlasting life

As you read the Scriptures after the events of the Passion of Christ and his glorious Resurrection you cannot help but note the puzzlement that overtakes many of the disciples. They want to believe that the story of Jesus is not over; that there is more to come. But doubt bothers them and continues to surround them, causing hesitation and bewilderment. Only the Spirit that enables and transforms God’s children is able to lift them up and set them on a new pathway to life in the service of God. Only the Spirit confirms in them their faith of Jesus’ Resurrection which promises new life.

Our liturgies and ceremonies as constructed for Holy Week begin with the Institution of the Eucharist, source of our nourishment and heart of our communion with God. Good Friday immerses us in the mystery of suffering and death while at the Great Vigil on Saturday evening the fire bursts into life to dispel the darkness and in holy triumph Christ is once more proclaimed as “our light”.

The Holy Week story contains the entire range of human feelings – joy, celebration, suffering, anger, despair, hope, confusion, doubt and betrayal, but it is love that triumphs in the end. And that is the whole point of why we continue to remember year after year the mystery of Easter. Love has triumphed. Hope is real, not imagined. And God’s mercy is without end. Life is indeed for us the gift God always intended it to be. With joy and humility, in praise and worship, we continually give thanks to God.

In a society remarkably nonreligious, like our own in Australia, it is very easy to take on board the holiday syndrome. To be impressed by Easter as a bonus vacation moment designed to break up the monotony of the year. It is very tempting to let slip the faith expression that indeed Easter has always been in the life of the Church and in the life of Christian nations.

If we have been living out the opportunities and challenges of Lent, preparing for the Easter feast, Easter will certainly mean so much for us. The Church has been encouraging us in this penitential season to examine ourselves closely, to discover our strengths and weaknesses, to aspire to turn over a new leaf. Prayer, fasting and Christian alms-giving are the means we have been encouraged to use to set right our relationship with God and our relationship with our fellow human beings. To attend more to public prayers and devotions such as the Stations of the Cross has been a useful exercise but the call to prayer is also a call to private prayer and meditation. Fasting has heightened our awareness and focused our attention on what Jesus Christ has done for us.

Sadly, in our world, too many people continue to be bewildered and puzzled about who they are and what the purpose of life might be for them. They want the good stories to continue but they cannot comprehend the joy of the Cross or the wonder of Christ’s passion. Nor can they comprehend that only the Holy Spirit can enkindle the fire of our love for God and strengthen our faith in Him. Our openness to this gift of the Spirit, which flows from the grace of Easter, is the difference between our reaching our full potential as humans or our remaining numbed to the possibility of a fullness of humanity as God has intended.

May the enduring love of God made present to us through the joy of the first Easter, continue to fill your hearts with hope and love. And may you be to the world, through the power of the Holy Spirit, a witness to God’s promise of everlasting life.