+ The Bishop's Easter Message
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, “Alleluia! Alleluia! Christ is Risen!”
Easter Day is the most glorious of all Christian festivals. Easter Day represents the central message of the Christian faith: Christ is risen; sin and death are overcome; eternal life is made manifest; love triumphs over evil. On this particular day, we recognize and reaffirm what it is to be Christian. On this day, we proclaim in the most definitive and comprehensive way, with a certainty given to us by God, that Jesus Christ is risen indeed!
Easter Day brings us a clear and forceful message from God. This message is one of deep and abiding love. Even with all the attendant drama, all the layered centuries of thought and pageantry that have accumulated around the Easter feast, God's message is ever the same: I have done all this for love of you. Easter Day is born of God's deep yearning for His people. He loves us beyond the deepest imaginings of our minds and hearts. It is His love that has brought Jesus to earth – directly to us, to be with us and to share our temporal lives. God will, we know, do all he can to save us. Jesus will go to the cross for love of his creation.
During Holy Week, we have watched His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, his condemnation before Pontius Pilate; we have watched Jesus carry his cross to Calvary; we have seen the life drain from his exhausted body. We watched as He died. Jesus, God among us, was put to death by His own people. By the people He loves. By men and women He created out of the love of His heart. And how, after all the agony He has suffered, how does He respond? Does He destroy the world He created, the world that has turned against Him in the most brutal and vicious manner? No. He responds with love. Because He is God. Because He loves us still. Because of that love, He gives His life for us. Can it be so simple? Our hearts know with certainty the truth; the love of God is so blindingly clear we so often cannot see it.
We need the Easter vision to see with the clarity only God can provide. God gives Himself to us fully, completely and without reservation. His love overcomes all the evil thoughts and deeds the world can conjure. God's love and all that reflects that love will survive to the ending of the world. God's love is continually made new. That is Easter!
Easter Day is the most glorious day in all the history of the world. Let the reality of the victory over sin and death live within your hearts - now and always. Let the profound and blinding truth of this particular day warm your hearts, your minds and the very core of your being. It is Easter Day. We rejoice in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. May the profound simplicity of what we have been given on this day fill our hearts with unceasing joy. On this particular day. And all the days of our lives!
Your Brother in Christ, +Brian
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