“This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice
and be glad.” Easter is the great celebration of victory of
life over death.
Ours is an Easter religion. We do not deny or turn away from the
evils that surround us: the wars that have killed some 100 million
people in our (last) century; the poverty that grips more than half
of the human race; the hunger that kills millions every year and
ruins the lives of millions more; the discrimination that divides
the human family into contending parties.
We do not deny these miseries, but we refuse to surrender to their
power because of our faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Suffering will be vindicated; death will be overcome; a new life
will arise: that is the Easter message of the paschal mystery.
“Let us feast with joy in the Lord.” Just as Christ passed through death to resurrection, so too will the world pass through its suffering to the glory of a new life.
There is no room for despair: our Easter faith tells us that God will “raise us up and renew our lives.”
This is the ‘day which the Lord has made.’ Alleluia! Take fresh hope, brothers and sisters of the whole world! With Christ our Passover everything is possible! Christ goes forward in our future!
Pope John Paul II, Easter Message, 1991: 8.