These days of bright blue skies, and spring blossoms, make it easy to identify with the Easter message. In this Jubilee Year of Hope, Easter reminds us we belong to such a positive and wonderful reality.
Despite the turmoil of war in Gaza, persecution of Christians in Syria and economic uncertainty, Easter 2025 is a mighty gift.
This Easter of 2025 is especially meaningful. For the first time in years, Christians of the East and West—those following the Gregorian and Julian calendars—celebrate this holy day together on April 20. What a beautiful sign of unity!
It reminds us that the resurrection is not a gift for a few, but for all. It bridges divides, heals wounds, and calls us to be one family in Christ. Today, we join hands with believers across the world, proclaiming with one voice: “Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!”
“He is not here, he is risen”, is the signal message which the women receive as they make their way to anoint this dead body of Jesus. That the Lord is truly risen is a fundamental element of the Christian faith.
The Old Testament readings at the Easter Vigil liturgical celebration are all about how God created every dimension of the cosmos as good and that when humankind drifted away from God’s original plan, God remained faithful.
Throughout the centuries God guided those with faith away from the path of oppression and persecution and domination towards that new liberty which would then be fully achieved in Jesus death and Resurrection.
Jesus came to save us, to liberate us for new life. Christianity is a faith of new life and of liberation.
Saint Paul, tells us, “In baptism we are joined with Christ’s death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the Father’s glory, we too might live a new life”.
“Christianity is a faith of new life and of liberation”. What does that mean? For many Christianity has been experienced in precisely the opposite sense.
For many, Christianity had been turned into a faith of prohibitions. Certain theologies spoke about freeing people from sin, but had developed a concept of sin and sinner which made it almost impossible for a sinner ever to feel himself or herself truly liberated.
There were so many rules that many were left with a sense of scrupulosity which left them trapped and oppressed by guilt and doubts. We had created a religion of fear, so much that even when we tried to live the good life we were never left with a
sensation of being free.
The Lord is truly risen. It is not an easy thing to believe. It defies rationality.
We note in the various Gospel accounts how the disciples who head out to visit the tomb, head out to anoint a dead body and that when told they find it hard to understand that Jesus is truly risen.
Despite what they had heard from Jesus, after his death they found the idea of his rising from the dead almost impossible to believe.
Rising from the dead seems impossible. But if Jesus has risen from the dead his message to us is that with faith in him even what seems impossible in our lives can be attained.
Rather than a faith that imprisons us in our weakness, Christianity is a faith which opens horizons of possibility. The mercy of God is a sign that the Lord wants us to rise with him to great things.
Saint Paul wrote: “As Christ was raised from the dead by the Father’s glory we too might live a new life.”
We are not called to reflect or discuss the new life. We are called to live the new life.
The Christian cannot live at peace in word where people are oppressed. If Christianity is a faith of liberation, then the Christian and the Church of Jesus Christ must be a place of real witness to the reality of the powers of darkness which still today trap people in oppression.
None of us can claim to be free if we live immune to the fact of so much oppression and need for liberation. Freedom is not the privilege of the few: it is a call to take responsibility for all.
Too often however we acquiesce in watching oppression. Too often the Church has fallen into the logic not of new life but of siding with power and conformity and safety. A Christian theology is always a theology of liberation.
But it is not an ideology of liberation. Not every ideology of liberation is really one which will enable people to be free. A true theology of liberation is not purely political.
True liberation theology is one which will never leave any politics happy.
Liberation is present in the Church through the presence of the Risen Lord who enables us – and challenges us – to live the dangerous and perplexing path of freedom.
We should not be fearful of the fact that freedom may sometimes lead us in the wrong direction; it is oppression which always leads in the wrong direction.
The Lord is truly risen. Our belief is in the resurrection of the body. The risen body of Christ is the light and the hope for our bodies.
How then can we be insensitive to the needs and the suffering of the bodies of children who are victims of violence and abuse?
How can we not be angry with those who support an industry which fosters a drug trade which holds people trapped in addiction?
How can we hide away from the fact of the sexual exploitation especially of women and children?
How can we be insensitive to hunger and yet spend millions of a false culture of the body?
How can we be unconcerned by political and economic cultures which leave men, women and children unable to realise their full abilities?
Jesus is raised to new life. As Christians we are called to live newness of life, a life which is founded on integrity and truth, on honesty and love.
The Christian life is a calling for all Christians. There is legitimate separation between Church and State; but the Christian cannot avoid working to ensure that the new life of Christ reaches out into every corner of a society.
The Christian cannot remain insensitive to a politics which becomes sterile through tiredness and negativity. The Christian cannot remain insensitive to a Church which becomes trapped in its own self-interest.
There is legitimate separation between Church and State, but both can benefit from the contribution of authentic believers. We celebrate the mystery of Christ who died and Christ who is risen to bring us new life.
We thank God for the gift of the new life of the Risen Lord. We open our hearts to the Risen Lord so that we can become heralds of new life to all who lives are troubled, beleaguered and oppressed in mind or body.
Easter is a powerful gift of Hope. This Easter Season may we be anonted with great Hope and peace.
O God and Heavenly Father, Grant to us the serenity of mind to accept that which cannot be changed; courage to change that which can be changed, and wisdom to know the one from the other, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
So, what does this mean
for us today? Easter is not just a story of the past—it’s a promise for our present and future. The risen Christ walks with us in every moment. Are you carrying a burden?
He offers you peace. Are you facing uncertainty? He brings you hope. Are you longing for a fresh start? He gives you new life.
The resurrection tells us that no darkness is too deep, no situation too hopeless, for God to redeem. Just as spring bursts forth after the long winter, Easter bursts forth with the promise that God is always making all things new.
Let me share a simple image with you. Think of a seed buried in the ground. To the eye, it looks dead—small, dry, lifeless. But beneath the soil, something miraculous happens.
It breaks open, and from that death comes a shoot, a flower, a tree. That’s what Easter is: the moment when the seed of Christ’s life broke through the tomb, bringing forth a harvest of grace for all of us.
And here’s the good news—you and I are part of that harvest! We are called to bloom, to grow, to share the beauty of this new life with the world.
So today, let’s live as Easter people. Let’s carry the joy of the resurrection into our homes, our workplaces, our communities. Smile at a stranger. Forgive someone who has hurt you. Reach out to someone in need.
The risen Christ is alive in us, and His light shines through our acts of love. This Easter, let’s be bold in our hope, unshakable in our faith, and radiant in our joy.
