As the new Paschal Candle is lit from the Easter fire outside and carried into the church, these profound and hopeful words are spoken:
“May the light of Christ rising in glory
dispel the darkness of our hearts and minds”.
Lumen Christi! Deo Gratias! The Light of Christ! Thanks be to God!
In recent months, dark clouds of war and violence have overshadowed the coming of spring and the promise of hope that springtime naturally brings into the world. Although from this distance we cannot hear the bombs and sirens of warfare from the Middle East or Ukraine, the distressing impact of conflict ripples around the world with escalating prices and volatile markets, and a creeping sense of despair.
Proponents of so-called “modern warfare” try to tell us that attacks can be clinical and contained, but that’s an illusion. We are deceiving ourselves to think that the ongoing use of rockets and bombs in built up areas, or the destruction of essential infrastructure, roads, bridges, water and fuel stations does anything other than spread fear and terror among innocent, civilian populations. Let us be clear: war currupts and depresses. War is ‘a defeat for humanity’.
All the more reason then for us to “hold on to hope”, this Easter. This is the Christian season of “darkness into light”, of “the Hope that does not disappoint” (Romans 5:5).
It is of course hard to find Hope in the rubble of a bombed hospital or school, or in the frightened eyes of a displaced family who have lost everything they own, or in the tears of those whose loved ones have been killed through acts of violence.
But the promise of Easter is that the Risen Christ defeated the darkness of evil on the Hill of Calvary. That Good News is needed this year more than ever, and it is our mission as Christians to make it known. Pope Benedict XVI once said Easter declares “History is not in the hands of dark forces, of chance, or of merely human choices. The Lord, (who is) the supreme arbiter of historical events, rises above the discharge of evil energies.”
Although it was very early in the morning and still dark when the women came to the tomb with spices to anoint the body of Jesus, an angel bathed in light says to them, ‘There is no need for you to be afraid. I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said he would.” The women, who had come to the tomb in sadness and grief, run quickly away, filled with joy and hope, to share the Good News with the others.
As Easter people here in Ireland, despite the temptation to be overcome by the darkness of despair and give up on peace, let us also be witnesses for the Risen Christ in these days, speaking and spreading the Easter promise of love, forgiveness, healing, reconciliation and the hope of a new springtime.
Peace be with you. Beannachtaí agus Síocháin na Cásca oraibh go léir.
Happy Easter.
+ Archbishop Eamon Martin
Archbishop of Armagh, Primate of All Ireland