06 APRIL 2023
www.therecord.com.au
Edition #427
ARCHBISHOP TIMOTHY COSTELLOE 2023 EASTER MESSAGE
Dear brothers and sisters, Once again this year, the joy of Easter rings out with the cry: Christ is risen! This is the source of our hope, the unshakeable conviction of our faith, and the inspiration for our determination to bring the beauty and promise of our faith to anyone who will listen. It is a message which our society needs desperately. So do not be afraid, in whatever ways you can, to share this good news with others. In the end, of course, this message of hope is an extraordinary confirmation that all that Jesus taught about God – about God’s merciful love, God’s offer of healing and liberation from sin, of God’s infinite patience with us as we travel the journey of our lives – all this is true. When the disciples of Jesus, who had come to know, to love and to trust Him, were confronted by the terrible sight of His dead body on the cross, they
must have begun to doubt what they had previously come to believe: that God really was as Jesus said He was. The death of Jesus must have been, at least for some of them, the death of their faith. But that faith was born again in the risen Christ, and they were transformed from people ruled by fear and overcome by disappointment to people who were filled, through the gift of God’s Spirit, with new hope and a courage that enabled them to be fearless witnesses to the God whom Jesus had revealed to them. Like those first disciples we, too, can easily be overcome by fear and by discouragement. At this particular time many of you who are listening to me may yourselves be in this situation. Although the worst seems to be behind us, the Covid-19 virus is still present in our community and its effects are still being felt. Rising interest rates are
putting great pressure on many families and the uncertainty and insecurity this brings can be very hard to bear. Homelessness in our seemingly affluent society seems to be increasing, leaving many people vulnerable to neglect and even violence. As we look around the world we remember that it is more than a year since Russia invaded Ukraine, and we are conscious of the terrible suffering this war is inflicting on so many. Recently Pope Francis, commenting on this, implored us to “open our eyes to the world; the whole world is at war!” He mentioned ongoing conflicts in some parts of the African continent, in Syria, Yemen, Myanmar, Latin America, and Ukraine and asked, “Will humanity have the courage, the strength, or even the opportunity to turn back?” Full Text available at
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