“I have risen and I am with you still.”
May these words resound in our hearts this Easter! Jesus completed his journey in the tomb, as all of us will, but He conquered death. By an act of pure love, the Lord opened His grave and rose from the dead.
Despite all the suffering, mourning and death inflicted this past year by the pandemic, we still joyfully shout that Jesus Christ is alive. He is our hope who brings joy to the world. He is with us in our disappointments, hardships and doubts. He is with us even when we stray and cannot find our way home. The Risen One is always there for us.
With the ancient liturgical Easter Sequence, we gladly repeat: “Christ, my hope, is risen!” After the darkness that has engulfed us now for more than a year, this Easter we are receiving a new and living hope. This most astonishing event in the history of humankind attests to the victory of God’s love over sin and death. The Resurrection solidly anchors our hope.
As my Easter greeting to you, dear parishioners. I make my own these words of Pope Francis: “Whatever sadness may dwell in us, we will be strengthened in hope, since with you the Cross leads to the Resurrection.”
I offer all of you, dear parishioners, my heartfelt Easter greetings. Together let us invoke Our Lady, the Queen of Heaven, that she may keep alive our faith in the Risen Christ, and make us Easter people filled with the fire of divine Love, every ready to be heralds of hope to our families and communities.
+ J. Michael Miller, CSB
Archbishop of Vancouver
