Diocesan News08 Apr 09

Bishop of Cork's Easter Message

Our celebration of Easter this year comes during the days after an extra budget in Ireland. We are all still trying to take it in. There is an irony in the fact that such a demanding budget comes in the week when we are journeying with Christ through his suffering to the cross.

We are asking ourselves what this budget will mean for each one of us and for our families.  The bigger question in our minds is ‘will it work?’  Will it achieve for Ireland what needs to be done economically at this time?

In all of this there are very human emotions of uncertainty, anxiety, fear and even desperation.  These are the emotions of Holy Week, Good Friday and Easter too.  The first disciples had put everything; their whole lives and faith in Jesus. Then he was executed.  Their dreams and hopes seemed to have been shattered.  Then came Easter – the resurrection – and to them that first Easter morning marked the beginning of hope and showed signs of a glimmer of light.  

The Easter message speaks to us of God’s hope restored to his people in the time of their desperation and uncertainty.  One of the challenges to us as Christians is to translate that message of resurrection hope into solidarity and practical help today for those people who are most in need in the midst of the fallout of the economic chaos in which we all find ourselves.  

May God renew our sense of hope this Easter and may we become channels of passing on that hope in practical ways to each other.