Love stronger than death
Bishop’s Easter Message
Life! Life is at the heart of our Easter celebrations. During Holy Week we commemorate Christ passion and death, yet the same Christ rose from the dead to show us the power of God’s love. In His resurrection we place our hope because God’s love is stronger than death.
On the Easter celebration, we renew our baptismal promises, rejecting evil from our life and expressing our faith in God the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit because this is our faith, and we are proud to profess it.
By renewing our faith commitment to God, we express our hope that life with God and in God is eternal. Truly God’s gift of life is beyond our understanding but at Easter we acknowledge that this life is the most precious gift granted to us from God.
Many of you are aware that to the greeting of “How are you?” I usually respond, “I am still alive.” This is because of my foreign and literal understanding of the greeting but this response is one of the joyous responses because it acknowledges the most precious gift of life.
Our life relates to our land because fruits of this land sustain our life. By saying that we must acknowledge the challenging time of our farmers who desperately need rain. So, let us pray this time for steady, soaking rain which not only revitalise our farms but will provide sustenance for our life. Acknowledging this tough time for our farmers, we must also pray and support those who have lost work due to unstable existence of some factories. This impacts on the life of their families and on the life of our towns.
In the time of fast communication, we are also aware of wars, conflicts and disasters in various parts of our world. Although it happens far away from us, nevertheless the life of our brothers and sisters is threatened but we are people of life, and we should support those whose life is endangered.
So, I want to thank you for your spiritual, prayerful and material support which you have provided through our parishes and communities. May this celebration of Easter help you to revitalise your commitment to God and to His people. May the Easter message “Christ is risen. He is alive!” fill your heart with assurance and hope that Love is stronger than death.
On Easter we spread the good news that Christ is Risen, He is alive, and He lives in us and with us. We, the faithful followers of Christ are filled with joy and hope. We share that Good News with family members and others by saying “Christ is Risen!” That news brings peace and hope in our hearts and fills Easter celebrations with happiness.
Happy Easter to you all!