EASTER MESSAGE

 This year, as we gather to celebrate Easter, the story of the Resurrection speaks to us with a renewed urgency. We live in a world increasingly shaped by division, where violence, war, and the desire to eliminate the other are too often seen as solutions to our differences. Each day we are confronted by news of conflict and destruction, and we feel in our bones the weight of a world fractured by fear, prejudice, and hatred.

Into this reality, the Easter story breaks like dawn.

Recently, on Palm Sunday, Pope Francis reminded us that God does not answer prayers that call for the elimination of our enemies or the death of our global neighbours. Such desires are human, and they arise from wounds that run deep—but they are not the desires of God.

Instead, Easter proclaims something utterly different.

It announces a hope far beyond our imagining.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is God’s gift of peace to each one of us—a peace offered not because we are perfect, and not because we are free of anger or resentment, but precisely in the midst of those struggles. Christ returns from the grave not with vengeance, not with judgment, but with peace and forgiveness. He reveals a new way of being human, a way that refuses to be defined by hatred or fear.

Not even death can overcome the love and power of God.

This is the hope Easter holds out to our world today:

a hope strong enough to stand against violence,

a hope gentle enough to heal division,

a hope bold enough to imagine peace where none seems possible.

As a community, may we dare to pray for that peace—not the peace that comes from the end of our enemies, but the peace that comes from hearts transformed. May the risen Christ break open the tombs of despair and hopelessness, and may peace erupt across the globe in a burst of new life.

May Easter renew our courage to live differently, to love more deeply, and to be witnesses of Christ’s peace in our homes, our neighbourhoods, and our troubled world.

A blessed and hope-filled Easter to you and your families.

Fr Brendan Reed

Parish Priest

Brunswick Moreland Catholic Community