Today, Easter day, Christians around the world are celebrating the Resurrection of their Lord. This festival, like the others of the Church, has a great message that can teach us something about our relationship with God and our responsibility for each other and the world.
It is a message about life. It tells of the power of God to renew and transform lives. It teaches us that this power transformed the death of Jesus into Resurrection and life. The power of God changed the pessimism and fear of Good Friday that gripped the lives of the friends of Jesus into the hope of Easter.
On Easter Day, the Church, like those friends of Jesus, celebrates life and proclaims hope. It teaches us that the conditions of pain and death that can overwhelm us in this world have been conquered by God through the Resurrection of Jesus our Lord.
Supported by our faith in God and the hope of Easter, we believe that we too, will conquer death through the resurrection power of God. As our Lord taught us, the power of God stands firm in the face of death.
This is the Easter hope with which we live as Christians. It helps us to respond to the conditions of life that can make us pessimistic and depressed. At this time when there is a lot of pessimism about the future, the Christian, standing firmly on the message of Easter, does not give up hope.
We believe there can be, and will be, better times, and with God’s grace we work towards making this a reality. We work convinced that the challenges we face can be managed and conquered. This is the hope of Easter.
When we encounter people who are being battered by the forces of life and are down and out, we should share our Easter faith and tell of God’s presence and power to conquer the things that can destroy hope. We tell of God’s power to strengthen our faith and our will to do better.
On this Easter Day, let us recommit ourselves to be people who live and share the faith and the hope that we celebrate today. This is not simply a wish for better days, but a conviction that with God’s power and guidance we can help someone to see a better tomorrow.
Do you know someone who needs this help right now? Be for them a beacon of Easter hope. Help them to see that God is still at work for them.
Share with them the central Christian conviction that no matter how awful may be our Good Friday experiences, there will be Easter and there is hope.
May God grant you a blessed Easter Day.
• Dr John Holder is Anglican Bishop of Barbados and Archbishop of the West Indies.
