A message of love and hope on Easter

TT, 21 Apr 2019: If there was ever a day that gives us hope, it is the Easter Day, the day of Jesus Christ's Resurrection. The 2.4 billion Christians all over the world will celebrate and commemorate this day on Sunday, April 21 this year.

People in general consider death as tragic and horrible. Death on the cross should be even more horrible. But Jesus chose to die on the cross, all because of His love for the entire human family in which He wanted to establish God's kingdom, the reign of love, peace and justice. Easter is a celebration of new life that Jesus is alive and active in our midst, giving us hope of reconciliation of peace.

Jesus preached and practised what he preached in his life; "there is no greater love than to lay down one's life for his friends". That is why the cross, the symbol of crucifixion has become not only the symbol of Easter, but also the official symbol of the Christian faith.

Death manifests that the nature of the physical body is corruptible. As Saint Peter has written in his letters, "All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower fall away".

But resurrection reveals that life is eternal and everlasting. Since the creation of the universe, life has never ceased to exist but has continued to grow. Life has neither volume nor weight, but it has a great strength. Although death is strong and it seems invincible, life is stronger than death. For those who live in the presence of the divine there is no fear of death.

The resurrection is trans- formation into an incorruptible body that suffers from neither illnesses, nor injuries, nor even from death. The story of the three young saints of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego who emerged unscathed from the fiery furnace of Nebuchadnezzar, burning seven times hotter than it was usually heated (Daniel 3:1926), explains that the resurrected bodies would be utterly strong. Man would become new, so would everything in the entire universe.

A tree's roots can break through rocks and turn it into a great tree. Its life draws water from the ground and bears leaves and fruits, for life is the strength in itself. Every beginning has an end and every end has a new beginning.

I wish all readers of The Telegraph a joyful Easter and God's abundant blessings.