Easter 2025

Easter 2025

My dear friends in Christ,

Only a week has passed since Palm Sunday when we heard these words proclaimed from the Gospel of Luke: “He saved others, let him save himself if he is the chosen one, the Christ of God.” 

Imagine what it was like for the disciples who watched as Jesus suffered and died on the cross. Had they abandoned all hope as they watched the Messiah’s ignominious death on the cross? 

In his letter to the Philippians, St. Paul writes “[Jesus] humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted him.” As baptized Catholics our faith has taught us that the crucifixion is not the end of the story. Jesus rising from the dead on that Easter morning was the source of hope for the disciples– and is still our source of hope today.

When Pope Francis announced a Jubilee Year of Hope for 2025, he reminded us that “hope is born of love and based on the love springing from the pierced heart of Jesus upon the cross . . . Christian hope does not deceive or disappoint because it is grounded in the certainty that nothing and no one may ever separate us from God’s love.”

This Easter Season I invite you to reflect on the fact that we can only be saved by God’s love as revealed in the death and resurrection of his Son. We cannot save ourselves. Human history has demonstrated time and again that all the riches and power in the world will not raise someone from the dead to eternal life. Yet this is the promise of salvation which Christ won for us.

What will bring you happiness in life? If it is to be loved unconditionally despite all your faults and failings, then look to the Risen Christ today. If you are seeking a “hope that does not disappoint,” then accept the invitation from Pope Francis to be a pilgrim seeking true hope in the love of God which is so bountiful that he invites us to spend eternity with him. 

Our Holy Father reminds us that “hope, together with faith and charity, make up the. . . theological virtues that express the heart of the Christian life.” May the hope found in the promise of eternal life bolster each of us to bear witness to Christian love, so that our faith may be joyful and our charity to others may be enthusiastic.

With prayerful best wishes for a joyous Easter and a life filled with hope, I remain
 
Sincerely yours in Christ
 
Most Reverend Robert J. McManus, STD
Bishop of Worcester