Easter Reflection

My brothers and sisters in the household of God,

Every Holy Week, the Church puts before us two great mysteries. The first is that Life itself, the Son of God through Whom everything was created, died and was buried. The second is that Christ, a Man (as St. Paul teaches) “like us in every way except sin” (Heb. 4:15), rose from the dead. God came to this world to die so that we may live with Him. As great a common enemy death is for us, so great is the victory that we celebrate tonight. St. Paul acclaims, “O death where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” (1 Cor. 15:55) 

Tonight, we celebrate the Passover of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. His Passover is our personal Passover, because through our belief in Him, we are given the certainty of our own Paschal resurrection. His victory over death is not only a historical event—it is a living and transformative reality for each of us who follow Him. Our adherence—heart and mind—to the Risen Christ changes our life and brightens our existence. His resurrection becomes the lens through which we view every sorrow, every joy, and every challenge.

We haven’t gathered tonight (in this Cathedral) so that we may “congratulate” our Lord for rising from the dead. Rather, we have come to celebrate the mystery of our own resurrection, for it is now surely to be expected since Christ has become the first Man to rise from the dead (cf., Col. 1:18; Rev. 1:5). 

We rejoice tonight because we have been given as proof of our hope the empty tomb of our Lord, and as evidence this brightest night of all human history -- the night that the kingdom of death was conquered by our Risen Lord. 

The certainty that Christ is risen from the dead instills in us courage, prophecy, daring and persistence just as it did in the lives of the martyrs of every age. Their unwavering witness echoes through time calling us to stand firm in the truth, even when the world turns away. Saint Paul, writing to the Corinthians, teaches, “If Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is futile” (1 Corinthians 15:14). We believe Christ is risen and therefore our faith is not in vain. It is powerful. It is alive. It is filled with hope.

“As candle melts before the fire” so do our burdens and pains vanish before the fire of our Paschal candles—those that we hold in our hands and those that we are called to set alight in our hearts. All the other problems that so vex the secular world—problems created by the sins of a very secular mentality—will vanish once we bring to our mind that we have been given the gift of everlasting life! 

The Risen Lord is with us tonight fulfilling His promise: “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). He is present in our every challenging moment, in our every act of love and mercy, in our every moment of silent prayer. Just as the first witnesses proclaimed this good news with boldness, we too are called tonight to proclaim—fearlessly and joyfully—that Christ is risen and in Him, we rise too—into new life, new hope, and an unshakable promise of eternal joy.